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J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.} 



iW*H WTO*S M i° * 

! 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



THE 



CHRISTIAN WORLD UNMASKED, 



BY 

JOHN BEKBIDGE, A.M. 

VICAR OF EVERTON, BEDFORDSHIRE ; FELLOW OF CLARE-HALL, CAMBRIDGE ; 

AND CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE 

EARL OF BUCHAN. 

LIFE OP THE AUTHOR, ' 

BY THE 

REV. THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. 

MINISTER OF FREE ST. JOHN'S, EDINBURGH. 



BOSTON: 
GOULD AND LINCOLN 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1854. 



34" 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 

BY GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District 
of Massachusetts. 



Goo. C. Rand, Printer, 3 Cornhtil, Boston. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



AMERICAN EDITION 



This work is republished from a recent 
Edinburgh edition. Some words and phrases, 
on account of their excessive quaintness or lack 
of dignity, have been expunged ; and a few 
paragraphs containing irrelevant matter have 
been omitted. 

It will be observed that many passages of 
Scripture are not quoted verbatim; but, as 
the words added or substituted are generally 
intended to be paraphrastic or expository, it 
has been thought best to leave them unaltered. 



IV INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The author handles the word of God, not 
deceitfully, but skilfully, giving the sense of 
the sacred text with peculiar clearness and 
force. In a treatise less colloquial in style, 
his method of citation might be objectionable ; 
but here it will be admired as an excellence. 
This facility in the use of Scripture is said to 
have given a special charm to his preaching. 

To the Memoir furnished by Dr. Guthrie, is 
appended a striking notice of Berridge as 
a man and a preacher, from an article in 
the North British Review, giving an eloquent 
account of the men to whom the cause of evan- 
gelical religion in England was principally 
indebted, in the middle of the last century. 



MEMOIR. 



John Berridge, the author of this book, was, 
along with some others of his day, the salt of the 
Church of England, and an instrument in God's 
hand of working revivals of religion within her 
pale worthy of record with those that his com- 
peers Whitefield and Wesley wrought without 
her. He was born in 1716, but not born again 
till he had entered the ministry. His studies 
were carried on at Cambridge, where he gave 
early proof of his native energy, and that what 
he did, as was said by an old woman of Dr. 
Chalmers, he did with all his heart. At that 
seat of learning, where he gained the honors and 
emoluments of a Fellowship, he passed for many 
years fifteen hours a day in hard study, ranging 
over all the fields of knowledge, and strengthen- 
ing by such vigorous exercise faculties of no ordi- 
nary power. Clare College at length presented 
him to the charge of Everton in Bedfordshire, 
where he labored as few men have done, till his 



VI MEMOIR. 

death, in 1793. In a short but most graphic 
sketch of our author, Dr. Hamilton, of London, 
thus relates the very quiet but remarkable way 
in which the Holy Spirit brought him to a sav- 
ing knowledge of the truth : — " His success was 
small — so small that he began to suspect his mode 
was wrong. After prayer for light, it was one 
day borne in upon his mind — ' Cease from thine 
own works, only believe ; ' and, consulting his 
concordance, he was surprised to see how many 
columns were required for the words Faith and 
Believe. Through this quaint inlet he found his 
way into the knowledge of the Gospel, and the 
consequent love of the Saviour ; and though 
hampered with academic standing, and past the 
prime of life, he did not hesitate for a moment to 
reverse his former preaching, and the efficiency 
•of the cross was soon seen in his altered parish." 
Nor were his labors confined to his parish 
now. He was not content with his own preserve. 
Not the man to stand by and see others beyond 
the parochial boundary perishing for lack of 
knowledge, he flung himself, heart and soul, into 
the very thick of the movement then being made 
by Lady Huntingdon, Yenn, Grimshawe, Wesley, 
Whitefield, and others, to awaken England from 
its sleep of death ; and never but on one occasion 
did he allow consequences, personal, pecuniary, 
or ecclesiastical, to turn him a hairbreadth from 
the path of duty. We record it as an example 



MEMOIR. Vll 

of how God may ordain strength out of the 
mouths of babes and sucklings, and by the weak 
things of the church confound the strong : — " One 
day, during the period of his itinerancy, he had 
occasion to pass through a town where he had 
often met the scoffs and taunts of the ungodly ; 
but instead of riding through the main street, he 
turned through a bye-way to avoid the profane 
people who were in the streets. Here he was 
met by a pig-driver, who immediately addressed 
him> and said — ' You cowardly John Berridge, 
you are ashamed of your Master, and therefore 
you skulk along here to avoid the cross. 7 This 
incident, he said, was of incalculable benefit to 
him ; it spoke with effect to his heart, and he 
became more and more determined not to be 
moved in bold confession of Christ." That soli- 
tary occasion which found Berridge skulking down 
a bye lane to escape the insolence of the mob, but 
stands as a foil to the bravery with which he 
faced his bishop, armed with all the powers of 
the church to crush him. Fortunately Berridge 
has left this scene painted by his own hand : — 
" Soon after I began to preach the Gospel at 
Everton — says Mr. Berridge — 'the churches in 
the neighborhood were deserted, and mine so 
overcrowded, that the 'squire, who ' did not like 
strangers/ he said, ' and hated to be incommoded/ 
joined with the offended parsons, and soon after, 
a complaint having been made against me, I was 



VH1 MEMOIR. 

summoned before the bishop. ' Well, Berridge, 
— said his lordship, — did I institute you to Eaton 
or Potton ? Why do you go preaching out of 
your own parish ? ' l My lord — said I, — I make 
no claim to the livings of those parishes. 'Tis 
true I was once at Eaton, and, finding a few poor 
people assembled, I admonished them to repent 
of their sins, and to believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ for the salvation of their souls. At that 
very moment, my lord, there were five or six 
clergymen out of their own parishes, and enjoy- 
ing themselves on the Eaton bowling-green.' ' I 
tell you — retorted his lordship, — that if you con- 
tinue preaching where you have no right, you 
will very likely be sent to Huntingdon goal.' ' I 
have no more regard, my lord, for a goal than 
other folks — rejoined I, — but I had rather go 
there with a good conscience, than be at liberty 
without one.' His lordship looked very hard at 
me. ' Poor fellow ! — said he, — you are beside 
yourself, and in a few months you will either be 
better or worse.' ' Then, my lord — said I, — 
you may make yourself quite happy in this busi- 
ness ; for if I should be better, you suppose I shall 
desist of my own accord ; and if worse, you need 
not send me to Huntingdon goal, for I shall be 
better accommodated in Bedlam.' His lordship 
then pathetically entreated me, as one who had 
been and wished to continue my friend, not to 
embitter the remaining portion of his days by 



MEMOIR. IX 

any squabbles with my brother clergymen, but to 
go home to my parish, and so long as I kept 
within it I should be at liberty to do what I liked 
there. ' As to your conscience — said his lord- 
ship, — you know that preaching out of your par- 
ish is contrary to the canons of the Church.' 
' There is one canon, my lord — said I, — which I 
dare not disobey, and that says, ' Go preach the 
Gospel to every creature.' " It is worthy of 
notice that God raised up friends in unexpected 
quarters to shield this faithful servant. The 
great Lord Chatham came from the helm of the 
nation to stand between him and ruin ; while the 
Lord Chancellor of England also was moved by 
Lady Huntingdon to leave the Woolsack and 
come to the rescue of the Yicar of Everton. In 
allusion to that circumstance, Grimshawe thus 
pithily and pathetically writes : — " May the Lord 
eternally bless that dear, good, honorable Lady 
Huntingdon, who would defend a persecuted min- 
ister of Christ to the last gown on her back, and 
the last shilling in her pocket." 

For the trials and opposition which Berridge 
had to meet from many quarters, he had an ample 
recompense in the extraordinary success with 
which God blessed his ministry both in his parish 
and beyond it. He suffered much and he labored 
hard ; putting most men to shame. For no less 
than four and twenty years he preached on an 
average ten or twelve sermons, and travelled a 



X MEMOIR. 

hundred miles per week. There were indeed 
giants on the earth in those days. He did not 
labor in vain in the Lord. Shining a star of the 
first magnitude in the constellation of England, 
he was held in the highest esteem and the warm- 
est affection by the worthies of his day. White- 
field pronounced him to be an " angel of the 
church." Yenn, defending him from opprobrium, 
says, that he was " as familiar with the learned 
languages as with his mother tongue ; and that he 
could be under no temptation to court respect by 
itinerant preaching, for he merited and enjoyed 
that in a high degree among all ranks of the lite- 
rary professors at the University. " Wesley pro- 
nounces on him this high eulogium : — " Mr. Ber- 
ridge appears to be one of the most simple as well 
as most sensible men of all whom it pleased God 
to employ in reviving primitive Christianity. I 
designed to have spent but one night with him ; 
but Mr. Gilbert's mistake (who sent him word I 
would be at Ever ton on Friday) obliged me to 
stay there another day, or multitudes of people 
would have been disappointed. They come now 
twelve or fourteen miles to hear him ; and very 
few come in vain. His word is with power : he 
speaks as plain and home as John Nelson, but with 
all the propriety of Mr. Romaine and the tender- 
ness of Mr. Hervey." But the noblest testimony 
and best reward which Berridge received was seen 
in the easrer, moved, and melted thousands who 



MEMOIR. XI 

crowded to hear him preach, and many of whom 
now shine as jewels in one of the brightest 
crowns that is worn in heaven. An eye-witness 
describes the church at Everton as crowded with 
persons from all the country round, " the windows 
being filled within and without, and even the out- 
side of the pulpit to the very top, so that Mr. 
Berridge seemed almost stifled." At Stafleford, 
Grandchester, at Driflow, Orwell, and indeed 
wherever he went, he was a centre round which 
thousands and tens of thousands gathered. All 
eyes fixed on him, the tears rolling over their 
cheeks, and many, unable to keep down the swell 
of their emotions, crying out, " Lord what shall 
we do to be saved ? " Even when nearly worn 
out by his gigantic labors and ardent spirit, he 
rose on one occasion to preach at Harlston, de- 
jected and depressed, saying — "I am now so 
weak, I must leave off field-preaching "; yet there, 
the usual effects accompanying the word, he deliv- 
ered himself with amazing energy to three thou- 
sand people. And so, from Everton as his centre, 
the truth radiated out to London and all the 
provinces round about. Lie sounded the Gospel 
abroad over all the country, and in many in- 
stances, revivals, like those of Kilsyth and Oam- 
buslang in Scotland, distinguished, and blessed, 
and crowned his ministry. 

Not that Berridge neglected his own parish, or 
had occasion to say, u they made me keeper of 



Xll MEMOIR. 

vineyards, and mine own vineyard have I not 
kept." In proof of this, and as illustrating the 
wit and eccentricity in which he indulged when 
the pen was in his hand, we may insert a letter of 
his to his friend and coadjutor, Lady Huntingdon. 
She had asked him to supply some of her chapels. 
His reply, in which he alludes to a minister of the 
name of Dyer, who with some sectaries had been 
sowing dissension and their peculiar views among 
his people, as well as among her ladyship's fol- 
lowers, will be found in the following letter : — 
"As to myself — he says, — I am now determined 
not to quit my charge again' in a hurry. Never 
do I leave my bees, though for a short space only, 
but at my return I find them either casting and 
colting, or fighting and robbing each other ; not 
gathering honey from every flower in God's gar- 
den, but filling the air with their buzzings, and 
darting out the venom of their little hearts in their 
fiery stings. Nay, so inflamed they often are — 
and a mighty little thing disturbs them — that 
three months' tinkling afterwards with a warming- 
pan will scarce hive them at last, and make them 
settle to work again. They are now in a mighty 
ferment, occasioned by the sounding brass of a 
Welch Dyer,* who has clone me the same kind 
office at Everton that he has done my friend at 
Tottenham. 'Tis pity he should have the charge 
of anything but wasps ; these he might allure into 

* Rev. G. Dyer, Lecturer of St. George the Martyr. 



MEMOIR. Xlll 

the treacle pot and step in before them himself, 
but he will never fill a hive with honey." In 
illustration of his powers as a Barnabas, we insert 
the following letter written to the same lady on 
the death of her daughter. Although marked in- 
deed by Berridge's peculiarities, it is full of lofty 
thought, and pregnant with consolation : — "My 
Lady — I received your letter from Brighthelm- 
stone, and hope you will soon learn to bless your 
Redeemer for snatching away jour daughter so 
speedily. Methinks I see great mercy in the sud- 
denness of her removal, and when your bowels 
have done yearning for her you will see it too. 
! what is she snatched from ? Why, truly, from 
the plague of an evil heart, a wicked world, and a 
crafty devil — snatched from all such bitter grief 
as now overwhelms you — from everything that 
might wound her ear, afflict her eye, or pain her 
heart. And what is she snatched to ? To a land 
of everlasting peace, where the voice of the turtle 
is ever heard, where every inhabitant can say, ' I 
am no more sick ! 7 no more whim in the head, no 
more plague in the heart, but all full of love and 
full of praise ; ever seeing with enraptured eyes, 
ever blessing with adoring hearts, that clear Lamb 
who has washed them in his blood, and has now 
made them kings and priests unto Gocl for ever 
and ever. Amen. Oh, madam ! What would 
you have ? Is it not better singing in heaven, 
' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,' &c. than 



XIV MEMOIR. 

crying at Oathall, ' wretched woman that I 
am?' Is it not better for her to go "before, than 
to stay after you ? and then to be lamenting, ' Ah 
my mother ! ; as you now lament, ' Ah my daugh- 
ter ! ' Is it not better to have your Selina taken 
to heaven, than to have your heart divided be- 
tween Christ and Selina ? If she was a silver 
idol before, might she not prove a golden one af- 
terwards ? She is gone to pay a most blessed 
visit, and will see you again by and by, never to 
part more. Had she crossed the sea and gone to 
Ireland, you could have born it ; but now she is 
gone to heaven 'tis almost intolerable. Wonder- 
ful strange love this. Such behavior in others 
would not surprise me, but I could almost beat 
you for it ; and I am sure Selina would beat you 
too, if she was called back but one moment from 
heaven to gratify your fond desires. I cannot 
soothe you, and I must not flatter you. I am glad 
the dear creature is gone to heaven before you. 
Lament, if you please ; but glory, glory, glory be 
to God, says John Berridge." 

We cannot throw together these fragments of 
Berridge's life and character without mentioning, 
that in addition to his own labors, which have 
had no counterpart in our day save in the lives of 
James Haldane and some few such men, he em- 
ployed many other laborers in the same field. 
He hired barns, he paid preachers, and on these 
and works of charity, he expended the whole pro- 



MEMOIR. XV 

ceeds of his vicarage and fellowship, the price of 
his family plate, and the whole of a large patri- 
monial fortune. He kept nothing back — he did 
nothing by halves — although sometimes indeed 
he brought himself thereby into difficulties, which 
however, were borne without repining, and from 
which, like a bee that finds honey even in bitter 
flowers, he drew good lessons as the following 
extract proves : — " Friday, July 7. — I have be- 
come acquainted with the Rev. Mr. E, , of 

Wakefield, and find him a sensible, pious, and ex- 
perienced man. He was long intimate with Mr. 
Berridge of Everton, whom he represents as a 
deeply devoted, spiritual, and humble man ; pos- 
sessing a vein of great natural humor, but of very 
serious manners. He gave in fact all his goods 
to feed the poor ; and at one period, after a long 
illness, he was in actual distress, not knowing 
where to turn for support. Whilst musing on his 
state, he heard a rap at the door — the postman 
was immediately announced with a letter, on 
which was charged a shilling. Mr. Berridge had 
not a shilling to pay for it, and would not take ; 
but requested the postman to take it back to the 
office, as he said he never wished to have any 
thing in his house that was not paid for ; but the 
postman said he would call on the morrow, and 
insisted on leaving it. When he opened it, he 
found to his great surprise a bank note for thirty 
pounds from John Thornton. ' Who,' said he, 



XVI M E M I E . 

'can doubt after this the existence of a particular 
Providence V " If our author did not always, in 
correspondence and conversation, restrain the 
overflowings of his humor, he never kept back his 
money in the cause of Christ ; if he said some 
odd, he never said mean, and he always did noble 
things ; and offering himself to God a living 
sacrifice on the altar of our faith, and with him- 
self all that he had, he went through the world 
and lived in the church of which he was one of 
the best ministers and brightest ornaments, rea- 
lizing the lofty wish of Brainerd : — " ! that I 
were a flaming fire in the service of my God ! ;; 
So much for the author. As to the book itself we 
may remark, that 

The " Christian World Unmasked " is a work 
which none but John Berridge could have writ- 
ten — the work of an extraordinary man ; like a 
child who is the living image of his father, it pro- 
claims its parentage. Here, as elsewhere he pre- 
serves his own character ; he always did so, 
whether he penned letters to noble ladies, or 
addressed a congregation of ten thousand peas- 
ants, or stood before the dignitaries of the church 
like a lion at bay, trampling the canon-Jaw 
beneath his feet, and claiming on the strength of 
a higher authority his right to preach the gospel 
to every creature. The book which we intro- 
duce anew to the public, has survived the test of 
years — and still stands towering above things of 



MEMOIR. XYU 

inferior growth, like a cedar of Lebanon. Its 
subject is all important ; in doctrine it is sound 
to the core ; it glows with fervent piety ; it 
exhibits a most skilful and unsparing dissection 
of the dead professor ; while its style is so re- 
markable that he who could preach as Berridge 
has written, would hold any congregation by the 
ears. 

No doubt a very fastidious taste may find 
expressions here and there to jar on its delicate 
nerves, which some may think it were better to 
have smoothed and softened. We once witnessed 
a scene which reconciles us to leaving these as 
Berridge left them, and assures us that, with the 
great mass of readers, these spots, if such they 
be, will be lost like those of the sun, in a blaze of 
light. Seated in the front pew of a side gallery, 
where we had a commanding view of the audience, 
it was our privilege on the occasion alluded to, to 
hear no common preacher. His grammar was 
uncommonly bad ; not seldom he violated the 
simplest idioms of our language ; and no pronun- 
ciation certainly could be more uncouth than his 
— yet the congregation hung upon the speaker's 
lips. Every eye was fixed upon him : and, appa- 
rently insensible to the existence of any defect, 
they sat enchained by a piety which beamed in 
his looks and often moulded his tones into the 
finest oratory ; and they looked perfect delight 
as ever and anon from the depths of his sane- 



XV111 MEMOIR. 

tified genius there rose thoughts so heavenly 
and sublime as to appear amid the darkness of 
his reasoning like rockets blazing up to heaven, 
bursting in the upper skies and descending on 
earth in a shower of fire-balls. Our author, as 
the work will prove, was in many respects a 
very different man from the preacher I have 
described. 

Berridge laid the hand of a giant on his sub- 
ject. He brought to his discourse the reasoning 
powers of a strong intellect, and added the 
accomplishments of a great scholar to the piety 
of a Christian and the pathos of an orator ; and 
indeed we are inclined to think that naturally as 
it came to him, that occasionally out-of-the-way 
style of exhibiting truth, which might offend a 
very fastidious taste, rather helped than hindered 
the grand object for which he prayed and preach- 
ed. He could not help doing what Richard Cecil 
did of design on one occasion, when he found that 
although he had brought a carefully prepared and 
polished sermon to the pulpit, his audience 
refused him their attention. That great preacher 
flung it at once aside, and after a protracted 
pause, astonished the still and wondering assem- 
bly by crying aloud " A man was hanged at 
Tyburn this morning ! " — Now all were awake. 
With that nail he fixed every ear to the pulpit, 
and starting from the scaffold he struck on a path 
altogether new, and delivered to unflagging atten- 



MEMOIR. XIX 

tion a sermon of extraordinary power. We cio 
not love Berridge the less, but rather the more 
for his peculiarities — not that we would have any 
man imitate them — for as even "beauty becomes 
ridiculous when a jackdaw has dressed itself in 
peacock's feathers, an aping of others is always 
offensive. Their peculiarities are like a suit of 
clothes which hang not well on any but the man 
who was measured for them ; not to say that the 
misfortune of imitators often lies in this, that in 
copying the lisp, the bur, the shrug, the broad 
accent, the ungainly and ungraceful attitude, they 
forget that their idol is not great by these, but in 
spite of them. 

If striking peculiarities of thought and expres- 
sion, however, be originalities — things not bor- 
rowed but born, as they were in Berridge — then, 
with God's blessing, they prove not weakness but 
strength, as was seen in the thousands who 
crowded to hear him preach, and the multitudes 
who fell before his bow, which, like that of Ulys- 
ses, none but himself could bend. For while to 
its inhabitants heaven's beauties are ever new, 
and familiarity breeds no indifference in them, 
how often is that its effect in our present imper- 
fect state ? It is with spiritual objects as with 
the most attractive or sublime scenes of nature. 
The glowing sunrise, the gleaming river, the sea 
roused by the storm into majesty, summer walk- 
ing the earth decked in a robe of flowers, the 



XX MEMOIE. 

brow of night sparkling with its countless gems 
— many regard these with the eyes of a brute ; 
they stir no thought ; they excite no reflection ; 
nor call forth such exclamation as the Psalmist's 
— ''How manifold are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty — in wisdom thou hast made them all ! " 
Even so, the surpassing glories of the Gospel, 
the cross of Calvary, the crown of heaven, are 
lost on eyes which have become familiar with 
them from the cradle and a mother's knee ; and 
to the terrors of the law men grow as insensible 
as the inhabitants of the tropics to the play of 
lightnings, or the tenant of a cottage within the 
spray of Niagara to the roar of its thousand 
thunders. These, although they may shake the 
air, and stun the ears of strangers, are unheeded 
or unheard by him. 

If among many striking, Berridge says some 
strange things ; if always original, he is occasion- 
ally odd ; if in this book there are a few instan- 
ces of the picturesque approaching the grotesque, 
the reader will readily excuse these for the sake 
of the noble piety with which the book is perva- 
ded, the golden truths that lie imbedded in its 
pages, and a style and manner pre-eminently cal- 
culated to rouse the dullest attention, and break 
through that indifference with which familiarity 
encrusts the most solemn and momentous subjects. 
Infinitely better such a book, than faultless dul- 
ness, unobjectionable common-places, an essay 



i 



MEMOIR. XXI 

from press or pulpit which is bare of beauties as 
of blemishes, and in which, if men find no faults, 
they feel, as sleepers prove, none of the interest 
that carries the reader over the pages of the 
" Christian World Unmasked." 

Thomas Guthrie. 



FROM THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. 

At Everton, in Bedfordshire, not far from the spot where 
John Bunyan had been a preacher and a prisoner, lived 
and labored a man not unlike him, the most amusing and 
most affecting original of all this school — John Berrldge. 
For long a distinguished member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 
and for many years studying fifteen hours a day, he had 
enriched his masculine understanding with all sorts of 
learning; and when at last he became a parish minister, 
he applied to his labors all the resources of a mind emi- 
nently practical, and all the vigor of a very honest one. 
His mind was singular. So predominant was its Saxon 
alkali, that poetry, sentiment, and classical allusion, what- 
ever else came into it, was sure to be neutralized into 
common sense — pathetic, humorous, or practical, as the 
case might be ; and so strong was his fancy that every 
idea in re-appearing spark' ed into a metaphor or emblem. 
He thought in proverbs, and he spake in parables ; that 



XX11 MEMOIR. 

granulated salt which is so popular with the English peas- 
antry. And though his wit ran riot in his letters and his 
talk, when solemnized by the sight of the great congre- 
gation and the recollection of their exigencies, it disap- 
peared. It might still be the diamond point on the sharp 
arrows ; but it was then too swift and subtile to be seen. 
The pith of piety — what keeps it living and makes it 
strong — is love to the Saviour. In this he always 
abounded. "My poor feeble heart droops when I think, 
write, or talk of anything but Jesus. Oh that I could 
get near Him, and live believingly on Him ! I would 
walk, and talk, and sit, and eat, and rest with Him. I 
would have my heart always doating on Him, and find 
its.elf ever present with Him." And it was this absorbing 
affection which in preaching enchanced all his powers, 
and subdued all his hazardous propensities. When ten 
or fifteen thousand people were gathered on a sloping- 
field, he would mount the pulpit after Venn or Grimshaw 
had vacated it. A twinkle of friendly recognition darted 
from some eyes, and a smile of comic welcome was ex- 
changed by others. Perhaps a merry thought was sus- 
pected in the corner of his lips, or seen salient on the 
very point of his peaked and curious hose. And he gave 
it wing. The light-hearted laughed, and thdse who knew 
no better hoped for fun. A devout stranger might have 
trembled*and feared that it was going off in a pious farce. 
But no fear of Father Berridge. He knows where he is, 
and how he means to end. That pleasantry was intended 
for a nail, and see, it has fastened every ear to the pulpit- 



MEMOIR. XX111 

door. And now he proceeds in homely colloquy, till the 
bluntest boor is delighted at his own capacity, and is pre- 
pared to agree with what he says who makes so little 
parade and mystery. But was not that rather a home- 
thrust ? " Yes, but it is fact ; and sure enough the man 
is frank and honest ; " and so the blow is borne with 
the best smile that can be twisted out of agony. "Nay, 
nay, he is getting personal, and without some purpose 
the bolts would not fly so true." And just when the 
hearer's suspicion is rising, and he begins to think of 
retreating, barbed and burning the arrow is through him. 
His soul is transfixed, and his conscience is all on fire. 
And from the quiver gleaming to the chord these shafts 
of living Scripture fly so fast that in a few minutes it is 
all a field of slain. Such was the powerful, impact, and 
piercing sharpness of this great preacher's sentences — so 
suited to England's rustic 'auditories, and so divinely 
directed in their flight, that eloquence has seldom won 
such triumphs as the Gospel won with the bow of old 
eccentric Berridge. Strong men in the surprise of sudden 
self-discovery, or in the joy of marvellous deliverance, 
would sink to the earth powerless or convulsed ; and in 
one year of " campaigning " it is calculated that four 
thousand have been awakened to the worth of their souls 
and a sense of sin. He published a book, " The Christian 
World Unmasked," in which something of his close deal- 
ing and a good deal of his drollery survive. The idea of 
it is, a spiritual physician prescribing for a sinner ignorant 
of his own malady. " Gentle reader, lend me a chair, 



XXIV MEMOIR. 

and I will sit down and talk a little with you. Give me 
leave to feel your pulse. Sick, indeed, sir, very sick of 
a mortal disease which infects your whole mass of blood." 
After a good deal of altercation the patient consents to 
go into the matter, and submits to a survey of his life 
and character. 

Many readers might think our physician not only racy 
but rude. They must remember that his practice lay 
among farmers and graziers and ploughmen ; and if they 
dislike his bluntness they must remember his success. 



THE 



CHRISTIAN WORLD UNMASKED 



Gentle Reader : 

Lend me a chair, and I will sit down and talk a 
little with you. If my company proves unseasonable, or 
my discourse unsavory, you may be relieved from both 
by a single cast of your eye. No longer I continue talk- 
ing, than whilst you continue looking upon me. My visit 
will be long or short, just as you please ; only while it 
lasts, it should be friendly. I have no nattering words 
to give you, nor any alms to ask of you. I am come to 
inquire of your health, and would ask a few questions 
about it. 

Indeed, sir, I am a physician, was regularly bred to 
the business, have served more than three apprenticeships 
at a noted hall of physic, and consumed a deal of candle 
in lighting up a little understanding ; yet am reviled as 
a mountebank, because I have been seen upon a stage. 
The Prince of physic set the fashion ; and his example 
satisfies me, though it may not content another. 

However, sir, my business does not lie with the walls 
of your house, but with the tenant within. I bring no 
advice to strengthen your clay, but wish to see your spirit 
healed, and to set the heavenly lamp a burning. Give 



2 THE PHYSICIAN'S INQUIP.Y. 

me leave to feel your pulse : sick indeed, sir ; very 

sick ; and of a mortal disease, received from your parents, 
and which infects your whole mass of blood. There is 
no health in you ; and since you seem not sensible of 
the malady, I must pronounce you delirious. 

Why, you frighten me, doctor. Sure you was bred at 
Sion College, along with Doctor Whitefield and his breth- 
ren. A very hard mouthed race truly ! Who have dealt 
so much in severe remedies, no genteel people will employ 
them. Their practice lieth chiefly among the poor, who 
can bear banging. 

However, since you are come upon a friendly visit, I 
will tell you honestly what I think of myself. I have my 
faults, as well as my neighbors; but my appetites are. 
pretty well bridled. My heart is honest, quite willing to 
pay all men their due ; my hands, too, are sometimes 
disposed to relieve a neighbor's want ; and my feet go 
orderly to church on a Sunday, when the bells chime, 
except it proves a rainy day ; and then I read the weekly 
paper, or a bible chapter at home, just as suits my fancy. 
This I call a regular life, and it is the ground of my 
hope ; not forgetting Jesus Christ, to help out some 
defects. For I am choleric, no doubt • but it quickly 
bloweth over ; and a little apt to fib in a market, but 
who can help it ? All my neighbors do the same ; and 
my landlord, who talks much of his honor' will tell a fib 
upon occasion, as well as myself. Now, from these cir- 
cumstances, it should seem that I am not mortally sick 
as you suppose, but enjoy good christian health. Yet I 
do not like your countenance, it looks so very cloudy. 
Are you in pain, Doctor? 



PATIENT NOT SICK, BUT DEAD. 3 

No, sir, but I am sadly grieved at the weak account 
you have given of yourself. It convinces me you are not 
sick, but dead — dead to God, and to his spiritual ser- 
vice. I expected some account of a true Christian, and 
you put me off with the state of a poor heathen, who is 
somewhat sober and honest and charitable, and worships 
his God when the weather suits, or his inclination serves. 
I find no trace of a spiritual mind, no taste of a gospel 
blessing, no earnest of a future inheritance. God's word, 
I see, is not your sweet companion ; his service not your 
true delight; his glory not your noble aim. Your 
religion floats upon the surface, like froth upon the water, 
and is a mere vanity. God has yet no hold of your heart, 
and you cannot give it him. 

If you were a child of God, his Spirit would instruct 
you to love and reverence him with the affections of a 
child ; and by prayer to converse with him daily, as chil- 
dren converse with their parents. 

If God were your Father, you would love his house. 
It would be dear unto you ; and a little rain would no 
more keep you from his courts, than from a fair or 
market. Where should a child go but to his Father's 
house ? And if a child of God, you would say, as David 
did, How lovely is thy dwelling-place, Lord! A day 
in thy courts is better than a thousand. 

If you were a real subject of Christ, the kingdom, which 
you ask for, in his short prayer, would come, and be set 
up within you — a kingdom of righteousness, peace and 
>'oy in the Holy Ghost. He would enable you, not only 
to profess him, but to love and serve him, and fix your 
whole dependence upon him. Your bosom would become 



his presence-chamber, where he would manifest himself to 
you, as he does not to the world: and your heart would 
he his throne, where he would sit, to sanctify your affec- 
tions, to regulate your tempers, and subdue you to himself. 

Jesus Christ is not a pasteboard king, with royal titles 
but without authority. He sits upon his holy hill, invested 
with all power, to captivate the hearts of his subjects, and 
execute his threatened vengeance on his adversaries. 
And where he brings men under the sway of his sceptre, 
he bestows the blessings of his kingdom. The Holy Spirit, 
as a comforter, is granted : the peace, passing all under- 
standing, is given: and God's love is shed abroad in 
the heart by the Holy Ghost. These jewels are dug 
only out of gospel mines, and set only in the breast of 
gospel subjects. And where they are well set, Jesus 
Christ becomes exceeding dear to such. They know the 
purchase-price he paid, and, having tasted of the bless- 
ings, they love his person, and adore his grace. Paul 
and they are now agreed, to know only Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified. He is their song and boast, their 
peace and hope, their all in all. 

Let me draw my chair a little closer, sir : plain dealing 
is exceeding needful here. If you are not a real subject 
of Jesus Christ, you must be a stranger to the blessings 
of his kingdom. The jewels I have mentioned are not 
locked up in your cabinet ; they are not bestowed upon 
the outward court worshippers. You must come within 
the vail, which is now rent open for access, before you 
can view a reconciled Father, and feast upon his grace. 

A decent walk will keep you from mistrusting your con- 
dition ; and these heavenly comforts may be thought too 



NECESSITY OF COMING WITHIN THE VAIL. 5 

rich for a state of pilgrimage ; and the remnant, who 
possess them, may be deemed a little brain-sick, quite 
unworthy of your notice. Perhaps the first Christians 
may have tasted of these blessings ; but you think the 
gospel wine, which was broached at first, is now run 
out, and nothing left for us to sip but the lees. Thus 
you are fortified in the castle of security ; your conscience, 
when it cries, is rocked fast asleep ; and with the mask of 
a decent profession, you live a stranger to Christ's 
kingdom, and perish in your sins. 

Nay, sir, do not start away, but keep your seat and give 
my words a little hearing. Let your conscience speak ; 
it has an honest voice, though a coarse one ; and if you 
cannot bear handling, it is a sign that you have ugly sores 
within, which are not less dangerous from being skinned 
over. I must probe again, to make you feel the sores ; 
and if my master guide my hand, I shall reach the quick, 
and hear you cry, as a perfect man of old did, Behold 1 
am vile ! 

Whilst you remain a stranger to Christ's inward king- 
dom, you are, with all your outward decency, but a 
painted tomb, full of all uncleanness. And because the 
walls of your house have had a white-wash, and hide its 
inward filth, and keep it secret from your fellow creatures, 
you care not much about that eye of God, which views 
your heart, and views it with abhorrence. Your bosom is 
a cage of unclean birds, and you dearly love their chirp- 
ing, and feed them with your own hand. In this retired 
chamber you riot in uncleanness, and if your filthy 
thoughts were all exposed to the world, you would almost 
die with shame. And yet perhaps so void of shame, as 



6 THE BREAST A DEN OF THIEVES. 

to think yourself a chaste person, if no outward acts of 
uncleanness are committed. Oh, sir, how can your 
heart, your filthy heart, appear Ibefore God — an holy 
G-od ? Do you read the Bible ? There I find it written, 
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
You are satisfied with clean hands, a decent profession ; 
but God requires a clean heart, and none shall see his 
face without it. 

But, sir, your breast is a den of thieves too, where 
self-will and self-sufficiency, the head of the gang, are 
up in arms against God, rejecting his authority, breaking 
down his fences, and laying his enclosures common; a 
den where anger, envy, pride, railing, lying, discontent, 
. and worldliness, the tail of the gang, have stripped your 
bosom of its heavenly furniture, and turned God's ancient 
house into a market, worse than Billingsgate. What was 
God's court is now a den, where distraction lifts her 
clamorous voice, and violence deals her heavy hand. So 
that a man's worst foes are they of his own house, the 
thieves that lodge within his breast. 

Sir, if Jesus Christ kept his court in your bosom, he 
would make peace there ; for he is the Prince of Peace. 
Where he reigns he does command peace, for the honor of 
his name as Saviour, and for the glory of his government 
as King. But how can you suppose that Christ is your 
King, when he lets your house be daily rifled by a gang 
of thieves ? A gracious prince will not endure to see his 
subjects ravaged daily when he has sufficient power to 
protect them. 

And with what conscience can you call yourself a sub- 
ject of Christ Jesus, when your bosom is a sturdy rebel, 



PHYSICIAN'S INQUIRY. 7 

and content to be so ? You might as well call me your 
prince, as Jesus Christ your King, if he does not rule 
within your breast ; and might as properly call me your 
Maker, as Christ your Saviour, if he does not save you from 
your sins. Where he rules as King, and shews himself 
a Saviour, he will purge the conscience by his blood from 
guilt, and hallow well the heart by his Spirit. He will 
cleanse the cage, and scour the den ; and when a wanton 
bird presumes to chirp, he will wring its neck off; or 
if a rogue assault your house, his palace, he will appre- 
hend the thief, and sentence him to Tyburn. Nay, it is 
a fixed rule with him, that whoever harbors thieves, shall 
have his house pulled down, and a dreadful fire set to 
it, which burns and never will be quenched. 

If my expressions ever wear an air of pleasantry, it is 
because I would tempt you to hear me out. My subject 
is weighty, but may seem too grave, as the modern taste 
goes, without a little seasoning. Well, sir, what think 
you of yourself? Are you a real subject of Jesus Christ. 
or an alien ? 

Indeed, doctor, more is lacking in me than I thought. 
I have been resting on a decent conduct and my Sunday 
prayers ; but something still, I find, is wanting ; and the 
main thing too. The house which I have built, seemed a 
creditable house, and was thought to be as good as the 
vicar's ; for we build exactly with the same materials. 
But I perceive, at length, there are no windows in the 
house, nor any furniture in the chambers. And no won- 
der if a dark house becomes a den of thieves, for they 
love the night, and dwell in darkness. However, I am 
now provided with some light for the windows, and must 



8 PATIENT DELUDED. 

seek out furniture for the chambers. I would not will- 
ingly miscarry in this matter, because it is of moment. 
And it would be sad indeed, after building and repairing 
all my days, to have the house upon my head at last. 
But I trust by the help of a good-ivill and a lusty arm of 
my own, to fray the birds away, dislodge the gang, and 
furnish well my house. What think you now, doctor ? 
Do I not talk like a man ? 

Yes, sir, very much like an heathen man, but not at all 
like a Christian. You speak with a right Canaanitish 
boast ; but Canaanites, though giants, were overcome and 
slain. If you find no better help than your own will and 
your own arm, your house will be down at last, and bury 
you in its ruins. 

Men are strangers to the spiritual nature of God's law, 
and to the woful depravity of the human heart, and there- 
fore entertain a meagre notion of religion, and a lofty 
thought of their own ability. If christian faith is nothing 
but a mere assent to the gospel-word, every man may 
make himself a true believer when he please. And if 
christian duty does consist in Sunday-service only, with a 
pittance of sobriety, and honesty, and charity, we might 
expect that men would vaunt of will and power to make 
themselves religious. And yet the generality are much 
defective here. They often talk of turning over new 
leaves ; but their future life proves such talk is empty 
boast, and that they want a will and power for this slen- 
der reformation. All allow that nothing is more needful 
to be done ; and nothing can account for its being left- 
undone, but a want of human will and strength to do it. 

Let me step into your closet, sir, and peep upon its 



furniture. My Lands are pretty honest, you may trust 
me ; and nothing will he found, I fear, to tempt a man 
to he a thief. — Well, to he sure, what a filthy closet is 
here ! Never swept, for certain, since you was christened ? 
And what a fat idol stands skulking in the corner ! A 
sweet heart-sin, I warrant it. How it simpers, and 
seems as pleasant as a right eye. Can you find a will to 
part with it, or strength to pluck it out ? And supposing 
you a match for this self-denial ; can you so command 
your heart as to hate the sin you do forsake ? This is 
certainly required. Truth is called for in the inward 
parts. God will have sin not only cast aside, but cast 
away with abhorrence. So he speaks ; Ye that love the 
Lord, hate evil. 

It is easy to affirm we have ability for this, and then 
dispute about it eagerly ; yet who makes the trial ? I 
have made it many times, and find I can do nothing to 
good purpose. Others seem well satisfied, with suppos- 
ing they have power, but make no thorough trial. Else 
they would find, and would confess, they can effectually 
do nothing. 

If the wanton nightingale is put out of your cage on a 
Sunday morning, she will be taken in again at night. 
Your heart will pine for her midnight whistle, and cannot 
hate her note, or think it half so horrid as the hissing of 
a serpent, or the croaking of a toad, though far more 
loathsome than both. 

Can you find a pleasant heart to love your enemies, and 
pray for them, and do them good ? Perhaps you may 
compel yourself to show them kindness; and this is 
sooner said than done. Yet shelving kindness to an 



10 PATIENT BEWITCHED. 

enemy is one tiling, and feeling kindness for them is 
another; and both are equally required. Pray, make a 
trial here of your "boasted will and power ; and sec if they 
do not prove of brittle metal, and snap between your fin- 
gers. 

You own yourself a mortal man, notwithstanding all 
your mighty strength, and expect a mansion in the skies 
when you quit this house of clay. But, sir, you must be 
taught the work of heaven, before you can be settled 
there. An earthly heart could no more live in heaven 
than a fish upon dry land. The element is too fine for 
both. It makes them sick ; they cannot breathe in such 
an atmosphere. 

Grace is blossom-bud of glory • and a work of grace 
upon the heart is a needful preparation for glory. By 
grace men are brought into the school of Christ, and 
bound apprentices for heaven. In this school they learn 
to walk with God, to love him, and to serve him — to he 
strangers upon earth, and seek a better country ; looking 
for the coming of the Son of God. These are some 
Scripture marks of the heirs of glory. Do you find them 
in your breast ; or can you stamp them there ? Indeed 
you cannot. None but he who turned water into wine 
can change your earthly nature to an heavenly. You 
must be born from above before you learn to crave, and 
truly seek the things above. You may peruse the word 
of Grod, but can you say with David, Lord, how Hove thy 
law I it is my meditation all the day ? 

When a bible and newspaper are found upon your 
table, I can guess which your hand will take up first ; and 
you know the heart directs the hand. The worldly mag- 



PATIENT LOYES A SUNDAY DINNER. 11 

azine is sweeter to your taste than the heavenly leaves. 
You may force and drive your thoughts on heavenly 
things ; but can you set your heart upon them ? If so. 
your thoughts and talk would glide on heavenly things 
most pleasantly ; for out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaheth. 

But, is this your case ; or the case of others who are 
reckoned decent people ? You know it is not. They 
have no liking for religious subjects, and find no power 
to introduce them. Conversation turns upon the earth, 
because the heart is earthly. Religious talk is unfashion- 
able, because it is unsuitable to our fallen nature. We 
do not care to think or talk of God, our daily benefactor, 
because we are not born of God, and have no filial kind- 
ness for him. His blessings are received daily, and the 
author most politely is forgotten. No mention must be 
made of him, who gave us all we have, and keeps us what 
we are. To talk of God upon a visit, would turn the hear- 
ers sick or sour, and brand the speaker for a rude man and 
a methodist. All ingratitude is reckoned infamous, except 
ingratitude to God. Such is human nature, and the kind 
religion of it. 

What makes the curate give you such a scanty sermon, 
just the fag-end of a subject ? And what makes the peo- 
ple love to have it so? The reason, sir, is plain. A 
Sunday dinner is more savory than the word of God. 

But, sir, if your house is furnished, as you threaten, 
then your parlor, shop, and closet must be lined with de- 
votion : this is christian furniture. Can you pray, and 
find sweet fellowship with God in prayer ? You talk of 
will and power : if they are at hand, why are they not in 



12 



exercise ? I call that man a boaster, and suspect his pov- 
erty, who talketh of his riches, yet never pays his debts. 
No work is more needful, more profitable, or more honor- 
able than prayer; and when rightly performed, none is 
more delightful. Why then is it not more followed ? In- 
deed, sir, you have no heart to pray, till God poureth out 
a spirit of grace and supplication on you. You may 
force your lips to say a prayer, and say it often, but can- 
not force your heart to like it. The work is irksome — 
mighty irksome. It drags on heavily like a jaded mill- 
horse who is whipped round and round, but longs to be 
released from his gears. A manger suits him better than 
a collar. 

And can God be pleased with that service which your 
own heart loatheth ? No, sir ; he requires a cheerful ser- 
vice ; the obedience of sons, and not of slaves. He says, 
Give me thy heart ; and his people are a willing people — 
made willing by his grace. 

But supposing that a little iciil for prayer might be 
squeezed from a flinty heart, you have no power still to 
compass fellowship with God. And what is prayer with- 
out divine communion ? A mere prating to a dead wall or 
blue sky. It is babbling to an unknown God, as four 
hundred and fifty prophets did to Baal, a jolly company, 
from morning till evening, but found no ansiver. Baal 
kept no fellowship with his votaries then, and never has 
done since. 

Praying unto God without communion, is like talking 
to a man, who neither gives an answer, nor a smile, nor 
yet a look. You would soon be weary of such converse, 
and avoid such company. And no people find an heart 
to pray, who feel no fellowship with God. 






PEAYEE TO GOD. 13 

You often hear at church, St. Paul's parting prayer, 
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, and the felloio ship of the Holy Ghost, be with you." 
By nature we are far from God ; sin has made the sepa- 
ration. And till brought nigh to him, we cannot say with 
them of old, We have fellowship with the Father, and 
with his son Jesus Christ. It is one office of the Holy 
Spirit to draw our spirit near to God, and give us fellow- 
ship with him. 

This fellowship is not obtained by a mere profession of 
the gospel, however decent that profession is, but by re- 
generation or a spiritual birth. Where the Holy Spirit 
has imparted spiritual life, he instructs a sinner how to 
pray, helps his infirmities in praying, draws the human 
spirit nigh to God, and gives communion with him. 
Thus the heart is strengthened and refreshed by prayer, 
and finds it both a pleasant and a profitable service. But 
where communion is not felt, nor truly sought, no comfort 
can be found in prayer, nor profit. And this is much the 
case of modern Christianity — a dull, insipid thing, void 
of spiritual life, and therefore void of spiritual feeling. 
Professors do not make pretence unto it, but disclaim it. 
So far, indeed, they are honest; but being destitute of 
spiritual life and feeling, they must be called gospel- 
puppets, danced with devotional wires. A church is fitted 
up for their stage, with boxes, pit, and gallery ; and Sun- 
day is the day of acting. During the performance, some 
are mighty decent characters, like a king and queen of 
France ; others rude and racketty, like cobbler Punch 
and his wife. 

Yet further, men have no heart to pray, because they 



14 



have no feeling of their wants. If I am, or fancy that I 
am, endowed with will and power to help myself, it seems 
a needless thing to beg of God to give me grace — as 
needless as to ask his help to light my candle. And 
where men boast of native strength, I do suppose they act 
consistently, and seldom chafe a knee in prayer. Com- 
mon decency requires a little outward homage, and a little 
will suffice. 

Now, sir, be pleased to hear what my dispensatory says 
concerning will and power. It is God who worheth in 
you, both to will and do ; and he works the will and 
power, not for our desert, but merely of his own good 
pleasure. God stands in debt to none ; and his works 
are not designed to reward man's merit, but to manifest 
his glorious grace. 

When your will is turned from evil, or inclined to good, 
it is the Lord's doing. He overrules the will, though not 
asked of him, nor perceived by you. This may be gath- 
ered from the text above cited, and is confirmed by the 
following story : — 

Abraham comes to Gerar, and through fear denies his 
wife. Abimelech sends for Sarah to his house, purposing 
to take her to his bed ; but when she comes, he is some- 
how wholly overruled. God appears to Abimelech in a 
dream, and says, Thou art a dead man. for the woman 
thou hast taken is a man's ivife. Abimelech protests his 
heart is upright, and his hands are innocent. God 
allows it, and says I know thou hast done this in the in- 
tegrity of thine heart ; but then he shews the cause of 
this integrity — For I withheld thee from sinning against 
me ; therefore I suffered thee not to touch her. In Abime- 



GOD THE MOVING POWER. 15 

lech we behold the doctrine of nature. He vaunts of his 
integrity, as modern Christians do ; and is just as igno- 
rant of God's determining his will, and of course as un- 
thankful for that determination, as modern Christians are. 
We need not wonder at it. Nature is the same at all 
times, and in all dispensations. Grace alone makes the 
difference. 

Hence real Christians learn to seek for will and power 
from God ; and give him hearty praise for all escapes from 
evil ; and for every good desire wrought in them, and for 
all good works performed by them. As for you, sir, and 
others, who can turn yourselves round by your own will and 
power as nimbly as a floating weathercock, I wish the 
weeping prophet's prayer was much upon your lips — 
Turn thou ?ne > Lord, and so shall I be turned. 

But, sir, you call yourself an honest man, and honest 
men will pay their debts. You own yourself a sinner too, 
and sins are debts 'due to God. How are these debts to 
be discharged ? They are a most enormous sum ; and, 
when felt, will prove a heavy load ; and if not cancelled, 
must bring on eternal ruin. Do you think of this matter, 
sir ? It is a weighty business. 

Yes, yes, doctor, I have had some thoughts about it, 
and do not apprehend much danger or much trouble here. 
I must repent, and amend, and do what I can, and 
Christ will do the rest. Some debts I shall pay myself, 
a decent part of the work, and Jesus must discharge the 
rest of the reckoning. This is our parish way of paying 
sinful debts, and seems a very good way. We desire no 
better, and only wish to pay our neighbor's debts as easily. 
What think you of it, doctor ? sure you can have no ob- 
jection here. 



16 CHARGE OF DISHONESTY. 

Indeed, sir, this way of paying sinful debts, as easy 
as it seems to you, would ruin me effectually. The 
iv ages of sin is death ; and if I must pay off only one sin, 
I am ruined ; for that debt is death. So of course I die, 
and perish. No help is found for me in this way. Either 
I must be forgiven wholly, or wholly be undone. 

This method of payment would make you a bankrupt 
presently, and ruin you eternally. Pray, examine it a 
little closer. First, you talk of repenting. True ; re- 
pentance goes before forgiveness. But you speak as if 
repentance was your own work ; whereas the Bible says, it 
is the gift of God ; and Jesus is exalted up on high to give 
it. You had better pray for repentance, than try to 
squeeze it from a mill-stone ; and such is every heart by 
nature. No kind of relenting is found there till Jesus sends 
it. What your own hands bestow can avail you nothing, 
but will need to be repented of. And where God gives 
repentance, it is never meant to purchase pardon. For 
tears pay no debts. They will not pay your neighbors' ; 
and much less God's, which are weighty debts indeed. 

Repentance is designed to make the heart loathe sin, 
through a sense of its deep pollution ; and dread sin 
through a feeling of its guilty burden. Thus the heart 
becomes acquainted with its nakedness and ruin, is broken 
down and humbled, and forced to fly to Jesus Christ, and 
seek deliverance by grace alone. Nor is the business 
quickly done. When the heart is conscious of its misery, 
it will try a thousand legal tricks to shake it off: but, 
wearied out at length with endless disappointment, it falls 
at Jesus' feet, and meekly takes up Peter's prayer — 
Lord, save, or I perish. 



AMENDMENT. IT 

After repenting, you talk of amending. Ay, to be 
sure. No repentance can be true without amendment. 
But you seem to think your heart only wants amending, 
and may be mended just as easy as your coat. Truly, sir. 
it wants new making ; and no real mending can be found 
without new making. All the rest is varnish, which may 
please yourself, and satisfy a neighbor, but will not content 
your God. A blackmoor, painted white, is but a black- 
moor still; an emblem of a decent modern Christian. 
Your conduct may be much reformed ; but your heart, 
unless created new, will be full of earthliness and all un- 
cleanness, and remain the devil's forge and work-shop still 
No thorough change is made until the work begins from 
above, and God creates the heart anew. When repentance 
is bestowed, David's prayer will suit you well — Create 
in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit in me. 

But supposing God should bless you with a new heart 
and right spirit, and thereby cause you to walk in his 
statutes — still, I ask what becomes of past arrears ? No 
compensation yet is made for former trespasses. Doing 
present duty cannot pay old past debts. Yet these 
debts must be discharged, or you are ruined ; and you 
have no overplus to pay a single debt. Nay, you are 
running deeper into debt daily, by doing what you ought 
not, and leaving undone what you ought to do. Still 
your deserved wages every day and every hour is death. 
Let me remind you once again of Peter's prayer — Lord, 
save, or I perish. 

Lastly, you say I must do what I can and Christ will 
do the rest. This is the common cry, the general run ; 
and is thought a safe and easy passage for a Christian. 



18 patient's plea of doing what he can. 

But the passage is too strait and hazardous for me- I dare 
not venture my own soul upon it. Supposing you have 
will and power for duty, then I ask, Do you pray as much 
as you can, or read the Scriptures as much as you can, or 
relieve the poor as much as you can, or visit the 
sick as much as you can ? Do you deny yourself as 
much as you can ; and watch against sin as much as you 
can ; or do any one duty as much as you can f Indeed 
you do not, and you know you do not. But if you put 
salvation on this footing, of doing what you can, and have 
not done it, what sentence can you look for from the Lord, 
but this? Out of thy own mouth I will judge thee. 

If this plea, of doing what you can, will not abide a 
trial, no other plea remains but doing what you will, or 
what you please, and making Jesus Christ do all the 
rest. But you dare not urge this plea. It is too shame- 
ful and barefaced for any mortal to avow it. Now, sir, if 
you are not able to abide the trial of doing what you can, 
and dare not urge the shameful plea of doing what you 
will, how is it possible for you to be saved by your doings ? 
Either a full pardon and a free salvation must be granted 
through Jesus Christ alone, or you are undone by your 
doings, cast and lost for ever. 

Perhaps you think that Christ came to shorten man's 
duty, and make it more feasible, by shoving a command- 
ment out of Moses' tables, as the papists have done ; or 
by clipping and paring all the commandments, as the 
moralists do. Thus sincere obedience, instead of perfect, 
is now considered as the law of "works. 

But, sir, if Jesus Christ came to shorten man's duty, he 
came to give us a license to sin. For duty cannot be 
shortened without breaking commandments. And thus 



INQUIRY REGARDING SINCERE OBEDIENCE. 19 

Christ becomes a minister of sin with a witness, and must 
he ranked at the head of antinomian preachers. 

And what do you mean by sincere obedience ? It is a 
pretty expression, and serves many pretty purposes. It 
has so vague a meaning, it will signify anything or noth- 
ing, just as you please. It is Satan's catch-word for the 
gospel ; and upon his gates might be truly written, Room 
for sincere obedience. 

But what is it ? If sincere obedience means anything, 
it must signify either doing what you can, or doing what 
you will. So we arc got upon the old swampy ground 
again, are sinking apace into a quagmire, and shall be 
strangled presently, unless we retire. 

Jesus Christ is so far from intending to pare away 
Moses' tables, that he carries every commandment to its 
utmost extent. A wanton look is declared to be adultery ; 
and a wrathful heart is deemed murder ; and the man who 
calls his neighbor a fool is threatened with hell-fire. This 
does not look like shortening man's duty, and making it 
sit more easy on a squeamish stomach. Surely this 
preaching cries out mainly against sincere obedience — a 
doctrine sweetly framed to set the heavenly gates wide 
open for the worst of men. 

Jesus says expressly, that he did not come to destroy 
the law, by weakening or shortening Moses' tables ; and 
he assures us, that whoever shall break the least com- 
mandment, and teach men to do so, shall be least in the 
kingdom of heaven, or farthest from it. 

If another witness is needful, we may call in St. James, 
who is jus- at hand, and a favorite with the champions for 
works and sincere obedience. But the good apostle hap- 



20 NOT JUSTIFIED BY WORKS. 

pens to be rather sturdy in this matter, and declares that 
if a man should keep the whole law, except in one point, 
he is yet guilty of all. A failure in a single article ruins 
him. Whoever breaks the least command, or neg- 
lects the least duty, thereby procures to himself as solid 
a title to eternal misery, as the man who breaks all the 
commandments every day of his life— which is designed 
to show the absolute impossibility of being justified in 
any manner by our works. 

Why, doctor, you amaze me mightily. I never heard 
such language in my life before. Our parish doctor does 
not treat his patients in this rough manner. Surely you 
have overshot the mark. What is really just and equita- 
ble among men, will be just and equitable with God. 
And is anything found among men that bears a resem- 
blance to this proceeding of God ? 

Yes, sir, enough is found in every country, and in your 
own land, to justify God herein. Many crimes are pun- 
ished with death in Britain, and the punishment is inflicted 
for a single crime. The law does not inquire, whether 
you have offended often, but whether you have offended 
once. It tries you for a single offence ; and if found 
guilty, will condemn you without mercy. Now if human 
laws are not taxed with injustice, though they doom a 
man to die for a single act of treason, murder, robbery, 
or forgery, why should God's law be thought unjust 
because it punishes a single crime with death ? 

However, you must not mistake St. James' meaning. 
He does affirm that a single breach of God's law deserves 
eternal death, as well as ten thousand ; yet he does not 
say, that small and great offenders will have equal pun- 



LINE OF SINCERE OBEDIENCE. 21 

ishment. No ; mighty sinners will be nrightly tormented. 
Men's future torment will be suited to the number and 
the greatness of their crimes. Yet ^moderate offenders 
can have small consolation from hence, because the short- 
est punishment is eternal, and the coldest place in hell 
will prove a hot one. 

Sir, by your countenance, I perceive you are not yet 
disposed to renounce sincere obedience. And, though 
unable to maintain your ground, you are not willing to 
give up your arms, and ask our noble Captain quarter, to 
save your life. Let the matter take a little more 
sifting. You seemed to complain of God for making 
death the wages of a single sin ; but you might have 
reason to complain, if God had made sincere obedience a 
condition of salvation, because no man understands what 
it means. Much talked of it is, like the good man in the 
moon, yet none could ever ken it. I dare defy the 
scribes and all the lawyers in the world, to tell me truly 
what sincere obedience is ; whether it means the doing 
half my duty, or three quarters, or one quarter, or one 
fiftieth, or one hundredth part. Where must we draw 
the line of sincere obedience ? It surely needs a magic 
wand to draw it. And can we think that God would 
leave a matter of such moment at such dreadful hazard ? 
Whatever is made a condition in a human or divine cove- 
nant, be that condition less or more, sincere or perfect 
obedience, it must be executed punctually, from first to 
last, or the covenant is forfeited. On this account, con- 
ditions in a covenant always are and must be marked out 
precisely. Yet here, sincere obedience is called a condi- 
tion, and no one knows what it is, nor will allow this • 



22 LINE OF SINCERE OBEDIENCE. 

poor unmeaning thing, whatever it is, to he absolutely 
binding. It is a condition and no condition ; just as 
much grace as you* choose, and as many or as as few good 
works as you please. 0, fine condition ! Surely Satan 
was the author of it. 

When human lawgivers judge a crime deserveth death, 
and make it capital, they always draw the line of death, 
and mark the crime exactly, that all may know what it is, 
and when they do commit it. And if God hath made 
sincere obedience the condition of salvation, he would 
certainly have drawn the line, and marked out the bound- 
ary precisely, because our life depended on it. 

If some Utopian prince should frame a body of laws, 
and declare that every one, who did not keep the laws 
sincerely as well as ever he could, should die, this pleas- 
ant sanction would make a dull Bgeotian grin ; and when 
the judges took a circuit in this fairy land, each assize 
would prove a maiden one, no doubt. Now if such a 
constitution would be hooted at among men, as the utmost 
foolishness of folly, can we think the wise God would 
adopt such a system ? 

Sincere obedience is called the condition of salvation ; 
but God has drawn no line to mark the boundary ; there- 
fore every man must draw the line for himself. Now, 
sir, observe the consequence. Mark how this ravelled 
clew winds up, and shews its filthy bottom. One prays 
on Sundays, but no other time — that is his line of devo- 
tion. Another prays only in a tempest — that is his line. 
And a third will pray only when sick or dying. One is 
mellow once a week, and staggers home, but keeps upon 
his legs — that is his line of sobriety. Another gets 



EYEEY MAN MUST DRAW IT FOR HIMSELF. 23 

much tipsy every night, but drinks no spirituous liquors 
— that is his line. And a third will take a dram stoutly, 
but declares sincerely that he cannot help it : he should 
be dead without it. What must we say to these things ? - 
They are all condemned. But if God has drawn no 
boundary, man must draw it, and will draw it, where he 
pleaseth. Sincere obedience thus becomes a nose of wax ; 
and is so fingered, as to fit exactly every human face. I 
look upon this doctrine as the devil's master-piece, the 
most ingenious trap that ever was contrived by him. 
"Where other woful doctrines slay a thousand, this will 
slay ten thousand. Talking of sincere obedience, and of 
doing what we can, is mighty plausible. It sounds well, 
and looks decent ; but opens a dreadful sluice for the 
profligate, and erects a noble pillar for the deist. 

I cannot think that the growth of deism is chiefly 
owing to the growth of immorality. A person will not 
surely choose to be a deist because he grows more wicked. 
He will not merely reject Jesus Christ because he stands 
in more need of him. But a man becomes a deist by 
hearing of sincere ♦obedience, and believing there is merit 
in it. Now the price of merit is not fixed in a Protest- 
ant market. It is much talked of, but not rated. He 
therefore sets what price he pleaseth on his own merit ; 
and pays his heavy debts off, as a neighbouring state once 
did, by raising the currency of its coin. Thus, though 
he may have been enormously wicked, yet by the fancied 
merit of a few good works in life, or by a charitable sum be- 
queathed at his death, he goes in a fiery chariot up to heav- 
en, unless he chance to be kidnapped in the way by Satan. 

If works are a condition in the gospel-covenant, then 



24 SINCERE OBEDIENCE. 

works must make the whole of it. Sincere obedience, as 
a condition, will lead you unavoidably up to perfect obe- 
dience. jS t o intermediate point can be assigned where 
you may stop. All the commands of God are enforced 
by the same authority. He that saith, Commit no adul- 
tery, saith also, Bo not kill. And if you allow one duty 
to be absolutely binding, you must allow all the rest. 
For they all stand upon the same footing. 

But perhaps you think, though all the commands of 
God are binding, they bind only to a certain degree ; and 
hence the gospel-covenant is called a covenant of grace. 
Then I ask, sir, what is that degree ? How far must we 
go, and where may we stop ? You cannot mark the 
limit, and God does assign none. Yet if this had been 
the tenor of the gospel-covenant, he would have marked 
that degree precisely, because my life depended upon 
knowing it. 

What saith your bible ? How readest thou ? Does it 
allow you to be guilty of adultery, or murder, or blasphe- 
my, or perjury, or theft to a certain degree ? Indeed it 
does not. Or may you indulge a measure of anger, or 
envy, or malice, or lying? Indeed you may not. My 
testament says, Put away from you all bitterness, and 
wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking, with all 
malice. And it commands you not only to abstain from 
evil, but from all appearance of it. 

Thus you can neither exclude any kind of duty, nor 
any degree of each kind. But the moment you seek to be 
justified in any measure by obedience, that moment you 
fall from grace, and become a debtor to do the ivhole law. 

God has proposed no more than two covenants. The 



25 



first was wholly of works, which says, do and live ; and 
gives the man a title unto life, who shall keep the law 
perfectly. The seeond covenant is luholly of grace, which 
says, believe and be saved. In this covenant salvation is 
fully purchased by Jesus Christ, and freely applied to 
the sinner by his Spirit. Grace lays the foundation, and 
grace brings forth the top-stone with shouting. Glory be 
to God for this grace. 

Now the first covenant is allowed on all hands to be too 
hard, and the second is thought by most to be too easy, 
and would fall to pieces unless shored up by sincere 
obedience. Accordingly, by the help of this rotten 
buttress, men have patched up a third covenant, consisting 
partly of works and partly of grace, in which the sinner 
owns himself indebted something, he knows not what, to 
Jesus Christ ; and takes the rest, be what it will, to him- 
self. The captain and the soldier make a joint purse, and 
purchase a crown between them. The soldier wins some 
gold to make the crown, and Jesus studs it round with 
diamonds. Oh, rare soldier ! He must not ascribe salva- 
tion unto God and the Lamb, as the saints do, but to the 
Lamb and the soldier. 

The mixed covenant is the darling of nature. It both 
cherishes our vanity, and opens a door for licentiousness. 
The judaizing Christians, mentioned in the Acts, were the 
first who began to adulterate the Gospel, by blending the 
covenants, and seeking to be justified by faith and works 
conjointly. They did not consider the precepts of the 
Gospel as a rule of life, but as a bond of the covenant. 
And they were led into this error, partly by a constitutional 
pride which is common to all ; and partly by a national 



26 SALTATION BY GRACE. 

jjrejudice which was peculiar to themselves. Moses 
had been their lawgiver, and works were the letter of his 
covenant. Of course they would be tenacious of a law of 
works, and as unwilling to give up their old lawgiver as 
an husband is to part with the wife of his youth. Moses 
had reigned long over them, and they gloried in being his 
disciples ; but Jesus now would be their king. And like 
a besieged people, who are driven to the last extremity if 
they cannot keep the conqueror out, they will make the 
best terms they can for themselves and their prince. 
If Moses must not reign alone, he shall be seated near the 
conqueror, and they will swear fealty to both. 

"Wherever these judaizing Christians came and found 
men disposed, as they are naturally, for the mixed cove- 
nant, they always preached circumcision to them, saying, 
^Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot be saved. And they 
preached right, if the Gospel be a mixed covenant of faith 
and works. 

No, doctor, hold there ; more words than one to this 
bargain. You may talk as you please, but I will not be 
circumcised ; no, verily, not I. What a fine figure I 
should make at church ! How my neighbors all would 
stare and point at me ! and how the vicar too would jeer ! 
I desire to hear no more of circumcision ; and the thought 
of your pruning knife so bewilders me, that I have dropt 
all the ends of your discourse about sincere obedience. 
Could you pick the threads up again, and wrap them in a 
little compass ? 

But to return to our subject ; sincere obedience is no- 
where mentioned in the gospel as a condition of salvation. 
If it were a condition, sure it would have been expressly 



THROUGH FAITH, NOT OF WORKS. 27 

mentioned, because of its high importance. Yet the bible 
is not only silent in this matter, but asserts the contrary. 
St. Paul declares roundly, We are saved by grace through 
faith : not of works, lest any man should boast. The 
reason added, Lest any man should boast, plainly shuts 
out all works of sincere obedience as a condition. For 
though these works are often small enough, yet if the con- 
dition is fulfilled by them, such is human vanity, they 
would afford a ground for boasting. Therefore to dig the 
whole cankered root of merit up, and give all the glory of 
salvation unto God and the Lamb, the apostle says 
absolutely, It is of grace ; not of works. Works have no 
share in the covenant of grace, as a condition of life. 
They are only the fruit of salvation freely bestowed, and 
the genuine evidence of a true faith, which works by love. 
Again, if because obedience is inculcated in the covenant 
of grace, it is thought to be required as a condition of 
salvation ; and, though not mentioned expressly, is cer- 
tainly intended. Then I ask what is the condition ? It 
is highly needful for me to know it, and to know it per- 
fectly, because my life depends upon it. I suppose sincere 
obedience must mean something short of perfect. Pray, 
sir, how much short f Half an inch, or half a mile ? 
Where must I draw my line, and fix my staff? The 
Bible has not told me, and you cannot tell me, nor all the 
scribes in Christendom. So T am brought to a fine pass ! 
Here my life depends on a condition which must be per- 
formed, and I know nothing of it, nor can know, and yet 
am ruined if I take a step too short. Oh, sir, if sincere 
obedience had been a condition of salvation, God would 
certainly have shown me how much short it comes of per- 



28 SINCERE OBEDIENCE AS A CONDITION 

feet ; and have marked out the line exactly, wlaither I 
must go, and where I might stop. 

Further, you describe sincere obedience by doing what 
you can ; and thus explain one loose expression by another 
full as loose. I call the expression loose, not merely for 
its loose meaning, but for its loose tendency. And here 
we may behold the subtlety of Satan, who blinds our eyes 
with such expressions as bear a decent countenance, and 
seem to have a meaning, yet leave us wholly in the dark, 
or leave us at full liberty to put any soft construction on 
them. Yet if men were honest, they might see that doing 
what they can, means nothing more in plain English than 
doing what they will ; and if they are tried by the rule of 
doing what they can, they must be all condemned, because 
they daily do such things as they need not and ought not, 
and leave undone other things which they might do and 
ought to do. 

Here it may be noted that what is called by plain men 
sincere obedience is entitled by the scribes a remedial 
law, or the law of love. They are all cankered branches 
from the same cankered stock ; and their number is con- 
venient. A troop looks well. They serve as pretty 
loopholes, to play at hide-and-seek in. No wonder that 
the foot is often shifted, when the ground is miry. Men 
will make an hundred hind of laivs, but God has only 
two, the law of works, and the law of faith. And 
what has been urged against sincere obedience equally 
affects a remedial law, the law of love, and all their Jew- 
ish kindred. They must stand, or fall together. 

Lastly, sincere obedience, as a condition, can terminate 
only in perfect obedience. No middle point can be 



OF SALVATION NOT TO BE BELIED ON. 29 

assigned where you may stop. No land of duty can be 
excluded, nor any degree of each kind. Thus you are 
unavoidably thrust upon a perfect law of works, and 
become a debtor to the ivhole laiu. And if you dare not 
rest on a perfect obedience, unceasingly performed from 
the first day to the last, there is no other resting for you 
but on Jesus Christ alone. He must be your all ; and 
he will be your all, or nothing. 

Thus I have gathered up my ends respecting this mat- 
ter ; and I trust you see at length that sincere obedience 
is nothing but a jack-o'-lanthorn, dancing here and there 
and everywhere. No man could ever catch him, but 
thousands have been lost by following him. A cripple 
might as well rest upon his shadow for support, as your 
heart depend upon the phantom of sincere obedience. 

Your mixed covenant is a mere bubble, blown up by 
the breath of pride. It has neither a foot in heaven, nor 
a foot on earth, but is pendulous in the air, and rests 
upon a castle floating in the clouds, which threatens down- 
fall and ruin every moment. Woe be to the man that is 
seated on it. Yet this castle, though the baseless fabric 
of a vision, is the glory of a modern Christian; and, 
being built upon the clouds, has been reckoned safe from 
gun-shot. But I trust the cloud is burst, and the phan- 
tom disappears. 

Indeed, doctor, I begin to perceive my old sweetheart, 
sincere obedience, is a very sorry hussey. Yet her face 
is so plausible, and her speech so winning, none would 
suspect her for a jilt. She must be packed off; but what 
shall I do when she is turned out of doors ? You have 
jostled me out of my easy chair, and now I have not got 



30 JESUS CHRIST THE ONLY REST. 

a stool to sit upon. My obedience will afford no sort 
of title unto heaven. Where then must I find a title ? 
Besides, I do not understand your doctrine, though I must 
give up my own. Sometimes you preach up Moses 
stoutly, and then suddenly Jesus Christ is all in all. 
One while you talk notably of being born again, and then 
presently you seem to speak as if my own obedience was 
fit only to destroy me. Pray explain yourself, and do not 
leave me in the dark. You have blown my candle out, 
and in civility should lend me your lanthorn. 

Nay. sir, candle-light will not serve you here. Sun- 
light is wanted ; rays from the sun of righteousness, or 
you continue dark, notwithstanding all that I can say. 
May this light be granted. 

The law is preached for two reasons, first as a school- 
master to bring men unto Christ, that they may be justi- 
fied by faith; and, secondly, as a ride of life to walk 
with Christ, but as no condition of salvation. 

Jesus Christ has no business with a Pharisee, who can 
plead his own righteousness. He came to seek and to 
save them that are lost. And the moral law must be 
preached in its utmost rigor, to awaken every sort of sin- 
ners, and convince them of their lost estate. When the 
law is set home by the Holy Spirit, it becomes a school- 
master, sharp indeed, and scourges sinners unto Christ. 
The fox is then unkennelled, and driven from his old 
haunt, sincere obedience, the common refuge and conve- 
nient screen for drunkards, fornicators, liars, thieves, and 
simpering deists, who are all at their wits' end presently, 
when they find their thatched hovel in a blaze. 

No sooner is the rigor of the law perceived by the 



THE RIGOR OF THE LAW. 31 

understanding-, and felt in the conscience, but it forces 
every one to say, as Paul did, When the commandment came, 
came home to my heart, I died, all hope of life through 
my own obedience perished. And they can take up Paul's 
lamentation, a mighty strange one to a modern Christian 
who has got no feeling, ivretched man that lam! loho 
shall deliver me from this body of death? 

Now they know, by good experience, that death is the 
icages of sin ; and feel themselves in a state of condem- 
nation. This makes them dread sin, and free to part with 
it ; because it has lost its painted cheek, and shews its 
haggard, countenance. The prayers of the church become 
very suitable and welcome. The frequent supplication of 
" Lord, have mercy on us," is neither loathsome nor tire- 
some. The much repeated cry " for mercy on us misera- 
ble sinners," is not thought a cry too much. And those 
strong communion words, " the remembrance of our sins 
is grievous and the burden of them is intolerable," are 
not muttered by hollow lip, but uttered with a feeling heart. 

A sinner, thus convinced of sin, struggles hard to help 
himself. He watches, strives and prays, and fain would 
keep the whole law. But as he strives, the law opens to 
his view, and shows its spiritual nature, and its marvellous 
extent ; reaching to every action, word, and thought, and 
calling for obedience every moment. And now he 
feels his nature's sad depravity. His heart is earthly and 
unclean, and therefore has a fixed dislike to spiritual 
duties. It may be forced on them, but cannot relish 
them, nor keep a fidl attention to them. He could sit 
four hours in an idle playhouse ; and though crowded up 
exceedingly, could keep a fixed attention all the time, and 



32 CURSE AND SPIRITUALITY OF THE LAW. 

be sorry when the farce was over. But his heart goes to 
prayer, like an idle boy to school, sauntering every step, 
and would play truant, if he dare. 

After many fruitless struggles to keep the law, he finds 
himself ivithout strength. Fain he would delight in God, 
and in his spiritual service, but he cannot. His nature 
will not kindly move towards God, and when thrust upon 
the task, groweth quarrelsome or sleepy, and is quickly 
jaded down. Hence he finds an utter need of the Spirit's 
aid, to create his heart anew, and breathe some spiritual 
life, to enable him for spiritual service. 

The curse of the law has now made known his guilt ; 
the spirituality of the law has shewn his depraved nature ; 
and his vain attempts to keep the law have disclosed his 
utter feebleness. Thus the law has prepared him for 
Christ. His heart is humbled, and broken down with an 
awful sense of his guiltiness and filthiness and feebleness. 
He is possessed of the first beatitude, Poverty of spirit^ 
but does not yet know it is the leading step unto the king- 
dom of heaven. 

This first beatitude conducts him to the second, Blessed 
are the mourners. He mourns, because he is poor in spirit, 
sensible of his spirit's poverty ; stripped of all his fancied 
worth, and fancied ability to help himself; weary of sin 
and of his evil heart ; heavy-laden with a guilty burden, 
and seeking rest but finding none. 

Pray, doctor, who is this sorry fellow, this weary wretch, 
that comes to Jesus Christ with such a loaded pack upon 
his back ? Some highwayman, no doubt, or some house- 
breaker ; perhaps a murderer : at least a person excom- 
municate, who has been very naughty 



Christ's appointed way. 33 

Indeed, sir, this sorry fellow is the doctor himself, and 
every one who comes aright to Jesus Christ. Did you 
never read the invitation which he makes to sinners ? Gome 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. You are a sinner, sir ; and all men 
are sinners, and condemned by the law ; but all men do 
not feel their condemnation, and therefore are not heavy 
laden with a guilty burden, or laboring after rest. Yet 
only such are invited, and only such are accepted. What 
right have you to come to Jesus Christ, unless you come 
in his appointed way ? 

If your wealthy neighbor should invite his poor parish 
widows to dine on Sundays at his house, this invitation 
would give you no right to dine, nor yet the vicar. You 
are not poor ividows. And supposing you should borrow 
female clothing, put on a gown and petticoat, and call 
yourself a poor widow, this female dress would not pro- 
cure a right to dine, but might expose you to a cudgel. 
Yet this is now become the genteel way of coming unto 
Jesus. Men borrow at a church the garb and language 
of a Christian, and say most sad things of themselves, 
while they are upon their knees, as if they were poor 
sinners truly, and yet would execrate a preacher, who 
should say the same things in a pulpit, which they had 
uttered in a pew. 

You have heard, no doubt, of beggars who tie a leg up 
when they go a begging, and then make hideous lamenta- 
tion of their lameness. Why, this is just your case, sir. 
When you go to church a praying, which is begging, you 
tie your righteous heart up, and then make woful outcry 
for mercy on us miserable sinners. Oh, sir, these tricks 
c 



34 CHRIST CALLS SINNERS. 

may pass a while unnoticed ; but Jesus Christ -will appre- 
hend such cheats at last, and give them their desert. 

Would you know where God will cast a gracious eye ? 
He tells you, To this man will 1 look, saith the Lord, 
even to him that is poor and contrite, poor in spirit, and 
bruised with a sense of his sinfulness. 

And would you hear whom Jesus calls ? His own lips 
inform you, I am not come to call the righteous. No ; 
why should he ? If he did, they would not come in his 
way, for they have found a better. But I am come, he 
saith, to call sinners — sinners sensible of sin, and bruised 
with it ; and to call them daily to repentance — not to 
patter over good confessions with a frozen lip, but to 
breathe them from a mourning heart. St. Luke intro- 
duces the call with these words, The whole need no physi- 
cian, hut the sicJc. And pray, sir, who are the ivhole ? 
Have any kept the ivhole law without offending in a single 
point? Not a man. Then all are condemned by the 
law, and have passed under its curse. Yet many think 
themselves ivhole, or nearly whole, and therefore see no 
need, or little need of Christ's atonement. Alas for such ! 
when the stone they have rejected falls upon them, it will 
grind them unto powder. But the sick need a physician. 
They feel that woful sickness, the plague of the heart, 
and loathe themselves in dust and ashes. 

But we must take a little further notice of our young 
pilgrim, before we drop him altogether. He was left 
disconsolate, with raw back and weeping eyes, just 
flogged out of Moses' school, and seeking balm to heal 
his wounds, but finding none. At length the invitation 
of Jesus reaches his ears, Come unto me, thou heavy 



THE YOUNG PILGRIM INVITED. 35 

laden soul, and I will give thee rest. He hears and 
wonders, listens and is pleased. A gleam of joy steals 
in his heart — a joy he never felt before, springing from 
a cheering hope and dawning prospect of deliverance. 
This kindles high esteem and kind affection for the 
Saviour, who appears all lovely in his sight, and often 
draws a heavenly tear from his eyes. The name of Jesus 
groweth musical, his love adorable, and his salvation 
above all things desirable. 

The weeping sinner enters now upon, a new world, and 
joins himself with the praying citizens of Sion. Jesus is 
welcomed as his King and Saviour, and receives hosan- 
nahs from him. He begins to understand what grace 
means, even mercy, rich mercy freely shewn to a lost and 
ruined sinner. No sermon suits him now but what directs 
his heart to Jesus, and sets the Saviour forth as prophet, 
priest, and king to save his people. A full and free 
salvation captivates his heart. 'Tis just the thing he 
wants, and therefore highly welcome. And whilst the 
tidings of this royal grace are sounding in his ears, he 
seems to give them credit ; but when the book is laid 
aside, or sermon over, fresh doubts arise which much per- 
plex him. His understanding is enlightened, but his 
heart retains a legal bias, and a secret harping after merit 
still. Sometimes he fears the Gospel tidings are so good, 
they are not true ; or if they may be true, they are too 
good for him. He likes and wants the promised grace, 
but staggers at the promise, A sense of guilt and his 
uncle ann ess so dismay him, that he dares not bring a 
filthy naked soul to Jesus, to be washed and clothed by 
him. 



86 THE YOUNG PILGRIM WAVERING. 

Sincere obedience often peeps again, and bids the pil- 
grim wash himself first, and Jesus Christ shall rinse him 
afterwards ; bids him plant a fig leaf here and there, 
and make a patched frock of duty ; and if it prove too 
scanty, Jesus shall eke it out with his fine linen. This 
expedient pleases for a season, and to work he goes, hop- 
ing to make himself so fair and tight, that Jesus Christ 
shall fall in love with him, and give him rare corhmenda- 
tion instead of free 'pardon. But though he wash him- 
self in snow-water, and make his hands exceeding clean, 
he is plunged in the ditch again, and his own clothes 
abhor him. Thus he grows bewildered, and has lost the 
sight of grace, until he hears it preached afresh ; and then 
he drops the snow-water and hastens to the fountain 
opened for sin and for uncleanness. He stands upon the 
brink, but cannot enter • and longeth a washing, but must 
wait for the moving of the water. He views the fountain, 
and sees it fair and open; he views the promise and sees 
it full and clear — He that believeth shall be saved; 
which makes him cry, " Oh, that I could believe the 
promise ; Jesus then would save me. But my heart stag- 
gers, and, when my foot seems fixed upon the rock, a sud- 
den gust of doubts blows me in the mire again." 

Now he knows the meaning of St. Paul's words, Believe 
in Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ; and he clearly 
understands that his want of pardon, peace, and holiness, 
is owing to his want of faith. If he could believe, Jesus 
Christ ttould fulfil his promise — it would be done accord- 
ing to his faith. Jesus Christ would save him from the 
guilt and power of sin. 

This makes him feel his want of faith, and his want of 



FEELS HIS WANT OF FAITH. 37 

power to give it. He had been nursed in a Christian 
land, and thought a mere assent to Scripture was sufficient 
ground to make him a believer ; and he marvelled that 
some preachers made a mighty stir about this easy matter. 
But he finds this human faith will neither purify his heart, 
nor wash his conscience : it will not save from sin. And 
he feels that prayer is nothing, and procureth nothirr . 
without divine faith. He sees a reason why the chosen 
twelve should say, Lord, increase our faith, because it 
is the gift of God. Could they give themselves one 
grain, they might add another, yea, a dozen grains, or 
twenty ; and had no need to ask for that they could give 
themselves. Besides, these men who ask for faith, were 
not heathen men, but Christian men, true followers of 
Christ ; and none but such can pray for faith with a 
hearty feeling of their want of it. 

Doctor, you talk mightily of unbelievers. Pray, where 
may they grow ? In Lapland, among the witches ; or in 
Greenland, among the whale-fishers ? Sure the people of 
England are staunch believers, and very good Christians. 
A modern set, I own, is startel up among us, who think 
it courage to defy their Maker, and act as freely as if they 
could control him ; and if they think as freely as they act. 
may well be called free thinkers. Such people cannot 
value Jesus Christ, because he brings hell-tidings to their 
ears. Who can love a messenger of ill news ? Mahomet 
would prove a sweeter prophet for this light-heeled gentry ; 
and would gain much credit, could he gain the pulpit, for 
he allows men concubines enough. However, these are 
but a few rotten pears among the heap ; the rest are sound ; 
and I can vouchsafe for our own parish, they are all be- 



38 PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BIBLE. 

lievers. Indeed, doctor, it would do you good to see how 
sinirkingly they go to church in summer ; and how tidily 
they look at church, with their better coats and gowns on. 
Oh, sir, the 'lifeless manner in which people pray, 
or hear the word of God at church, shcweth plainly that 
they have no property in the blessings of the Gospel. 
Glorious things are spoken in the Scripture, but they make 
a mighty small impression on a Christian congregation. 
The heavenly tidings fall into their heavy ears like money 
dropt into a dead man's hand. No comfort is received 
from the money or the tidings, because they are both dead, 
and have no interest in them. 

If you, sir, was an heir to a fine estate, your bosom 
would be often warmed with the joyful prospect ; but 
your father's servant could not feel your joy. His bosom 
would not glow when the fields are viewed, or when the 
rents are paid. And wherefore ? Because he is not the 
heir. 

A Bible is the precious store-house, and the magna 
charta of a Christian. There he reads of his heavenly 
Father's love, and of his dying Saviour's legacies. There 
he sees a map of his travels through the wilderness, and a 
landscape tco of Canaan. And when he climbs on 
Pisgah's top, and views the promised land, his heart 
begins to burn, delighted with the blessed prospect, and 
amazed at the rich and free salvation. But a mere pro- 
fessor, though a decent one, looks on the Bible as a dull 
book ; and peruseth it with such indifference as you would 
read the title-deeds belonging to another man's estate. 

I am quite amazed to hear you vouch for your parish as 
a whole flock of believers. Such a thing was never 



THE BLACK TROOP AND DECENT PEOPLE. 39 

known before, and would make an eighth wonder of the 
world. Why, sir, are there none among you that are 
slaves to divers lusts and pleasures ? None that live in 
malice and envy, hateful and hating one another ? Have 
you no drunkards nor whoremongers, no Sabbath-break- 
ers nor common swearers, no extortioners nor covetous, 
no liars nor thieves, no lazy hands that will not work, 
and no light minds that cannot pray ? If you think such 
church-goers are believers, I may fairly rank Satan at 
their head ; because he stands possessed of their faith, 
and is the noble captain of this troop — a troop which 
often maketh up three quarters of a parish. 

Jesus says, He that believeth shall be saved. Saved 
from what ? Why, from the guilt and power of sin. 
Such is Christ's salvation here on earth. But this black 
troop is visibly and wilfully under the power of sin, and 
therefore cannot have that faith which saves from sin. 

Thus at once reckoning, the greater part of your sheep 
prove goats or wolves ; but a remnant is behind of decent 
people, the modern soft phrase for a Christian. Let these 
decent people take a decent trial. It will not hurt them, 
if they are good men and true. 

St. Paul says, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in 
the faith. He takes it not for granted that Christian 
professors must be true believers, but commands them all 
to prove their own selves ; and drops a question, as a 
touchstone, to prove themselves by. A strange question 
it must seem to such as have not true faith, yet is a most 
important question, and the only one that distinguisheth 
true faith from counterfeit. The apostle does not ask, 
whether you are sober, honest, charitable, church-going 



40 A FANCIFUL POSSESSION OF THE SPIEIT, 

people — the present pigmy standard for a Christian sol- 
dier — but he asks a very searching question, even this., 
Knoio ye not that Jesus Christ is in you ? And declares, 
if they know it not, they must be reprobates, disapproved of 
God as hypocrites, notwithstanding all then decent carriage. 

The meaning of St. Paul's question is plainly this, 
Know ye not that the Spirit of Christ is in you ? For 
where Christ's Spirit is, there is he. The same kind of 
question is asked in the first epistle, Know ye not, that 
ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dvjelleth in you. 

Yery right, doctor, here we are agreed. All Chris- 
tians, to be sure, must have the Spirit of Christ • and 
though we feel it not, but are utter strangers to its influ- 
ence, we must be supposed to have it ; because we are 
born in a Christian land, wear a Christian name, breathe 
a wholesome Christian air, have a pew in a Christian 
church, keep a merry Christmas every year, and bury 
upon Christian ground. Here is proof enough, doctor. 

Yes, sir, proof enough that you live in a Christian 
land, but no proof that you are a Christian people. To 
suppose you have the Spirit's presence, and yet remain an 
utter stranger to its influence, is the topmost tower of 
enthusiasm, the soaring pinnacle on which its floating 
weathercock is fixed. So this blessed guest comes to lurk 
in your bosom, like a spy in a camp ; or like a thief in a 
cellar ; and stealeth in and stealeth out, without your 
notice : mighty fine ! But you are not such a wild 
enthusiast in common life as to suppose their is money in 
your pocket, when you feel none ; or bank notes in your 
drawer, when you find none. If you never feel any 



THE TOPMAST TOWER OF ENTHUSIASM. 41 

symptoms of patience, you cannot well suppose yourself 
possessed of any ; and why should you dream of the 
Spirit's presence, when you never find any tokens of it ? 

The Spirit's influence must he felt, or it cannot profit • 
and the very offices of the Holy Spirit do suppose and 
warrant such a feeling. Let me mention some of them, 
which are these — to quicken ; to strengthen mightily ; 
to witness our adoption and to bring heavenly joy. Now 
sir, what avails that quickening, which I cannot feel ? It 
leaves me just as heartless to spiritual duty as it found 
me. And what advantage does that mighty strengthen- 
ing bring, which is not perceived by me ? It yields no 
further power to subdue my lusts than I had before. 
And of what service is that witness in the court of con- 
science who speaks in such a low or mumbling tone, that 
none can hear or understand him ? I am just as well 
without his evidence as with it. And lastly, of what use 
or value is that heavenly joy, which I can have no taste 
of? All this is just the picture of Isaiah's hungry man 
who dreamt he was eating, but awoke and ivas empty. 

But, sir, St. Paul did not ask this idle question, "Do 
you suppose the Spirit of Christ is in you ? " All the 
Church of Corinth, and all the churchmen in Great Bri- 
tain, might have answered quickly, "Yes, Mr. Paul, we 
do suppose it." But he asks a weighty question, "Do 
ye know it? " Have you real experience, or heartfelt 
knowledge, that the Spirit of Christ is in you ? Are you 
acquainted with its operation ? Do you know it ? 

St. Paul may ask this question safely, because his 
name is canonized, and his bones are mouldered into 
dust ; but if a living preacher ask the same question, the 



42 KNOWLEDGE OF INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 

world cry out, enthusiasm ! And yet St. Paul makes 
this very knowledge the very evidence of true faith ; and 
accounteth other faith, which produceth not this knowl- 
edge, to be counterfeit • and the men themselves to be 
reprobates. 

Jesus saith to his disciples, Ye know the Spirit, for 
he dwelleth with you. His words carry this plain meaning, 
that where the Spirit dwells, he makes his presence knotvn 
by his operations on the heart. 

St. John tells the whole Christian Church, Hereby we 
know that Christ dwelleth in us, by his Spirit, which he 
hath given ics. We know the Spirit of Christ dwelleth 
in us, and thereby are assured of our union with Christ. 
And, like as Paul had done before, he proposeth this 
knowledge as a touchstone, to try our profession — hereby 
we know that Christ dwelleth in us. 

Indeed, doctor, I am a stranger to the Holy Spirit's 
influence, yet do not seem disposed to question my pro- 
fession. Still, I think my faith is sound, and am sure 
there is no better in the parish. The vicar never ques- 
tioned it ; and why should ycu ? It is not mighty civil. 
Besides, I am free of my beer, and have the good luck to 
beloved by every one — scarce a dog will bark at me. 
' As honest as the old grazier,' is a common saying; and 
this alone is proof enough that I must be a Christian. 

Indeed, sir, this alone is proof enough against your 
Christianity. While you are of the vjorld, the world 
will love you ; but when you cease to be of the world t 
and are chosen out of the world, the world will hate 
you. It hated Jesus Christ, and will hate every true 
disciple. 









the lord's shibboleths. 43 

Paul affirms peremptorily, Yea, and all that ivill live 
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Lire 
where you will, in a Christian or a heathen land ; live 
when you will, in the present or distant age, Paul affirms 
universally of real Christians, Yea, they all shall suffer 
persecution. If you lead what the world calls a godly 
life, you will have the world's condemnation. You may 
be sober, and honest, and friendly ; you may pray, and 
give alms, and fast too, if you please ; and, while these 
things arc doing by your own strength, and make a 
ground of acceptance with God, you are waxing godly in 
yourself, or from yourself made godly by the world's spirit, 
and the world will applaud you. But, if once you grow 
godly in Christ Jesus, renouncing all your wisdom, 
strength, and righteousness, and come to Jesus as a lost 
sinner, seeking all supplies from him, resting all your 
hope upon him, making him your all in every thing, and 
counting all things utter dross in comparison of him, then 
the world will hate you, and lift a heel against you. A 
godly life in Christ Jesus thwarteth human pride, and 
staineth all its glory, which will not be suffered patiently. 

Men are mighty apt to bless themselves in the world's 
esteem, and look upon it as a kindly token that the Lcrd 
accepts them. To rectify the judgment, and sweep away 
deceitful hopes, arising from the world's good name, 
Christ has dropt a curse upon it, saying, Woe unto you^ 
when all men shall speak well of you. This is one of the 
Lord's Shibboleths, which he useth to alarm a decent pro- 
fessor, the world's favorite. It is a frightful ugly bridge 
upon the king's highway. An Israelite goes over safely, 
but no Eclomite can pass it. Esau, the elder brother will 



44 THE PEACE OP GOD. 

not travel here, but trudgeth down to a ferry, built by 
Mr. Fairspeech, to make a smoother passage over the 
river. 

So much for the world's esteem : happy is the man who 
has lost it wholly and. honestly. But your faith, sir, must 
be canvassed a little more. You are a grazier, it seems ; 
and when you buy a bullock at a fair, you do not take 
the salesman's word, but feel the beast yourself, and ex- 
amine all its points minutely. Now, sir, do the same by 
your faith, and take it not on trust, as recommended by 
your neighbor, but examine it, and handle all its points 
by the word of God. Faith is an active and a fruitful 
thing, its fruit is pleasant both to God and man. And the 
man who does possess it, is a noble man indeed — an heir 
of God through Christ. But it behoves us to be wary, for 
counterfeit faith, like counterfeit gold, is very current. 

Paul says, Being justified by faith we have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ; we have peace, or 
possess it, for what we have we must possess. Now, this 
peace is given to assure the conscience that God is at peace 
with us — that he is reconciled, and has forgiven all our 
trespasses. And whoever feels this peace must be assured 
of the pardon of his sins ; it is the witness of his pardon. 

This blessed peace does not grow in nature's garden, 
nor can be digged out of mines of human merit. It was 
lost in Paradise, and is found only at Calvary. It is 
called the peace of God because it is of God's bestowing, 
and bestowed through Jesus Christ alone. 

Where this peace is bestowed, it is found to be as Paul 
describes it, A peace passing cdl understanding. A 
peace so exquisitely rich that none can understand what it 



THE SEALING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 45' 

is until he feels it ; and when he feels it never can express 
it. Men may mistake this peace before they taste it, as 
ten thousands do, and take up with a human calm, instead 
of it ; but he who feels it never can mistake it, for nothing 
else is like it — it passeth all understanding. 

The Holy Spirit seals this peace upon the conscience, 
and thereby proclaims the pardon of sin, and sheds abroad 
the love of God into the heart, and beareth witness to our 
adoption. 

This sealing of the Holy Spirit is given as an earnest 
of our future inheritance ; it is a heavenly pledge dropt 
into the bosom to assure us of our interest in Christ. Thus 
conscience is delivered from the fear of wrath, and/ear of 
death which bringeth bondage ; the heart rejoices now in 
God, as a reconciled God, calls him Father by the Spirit 
of adoption, delighteth in his blessed service, and feels the 
meaning of St. Peter's words, Believing in Christ Jesus, 
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full o/" Glory. 

These are weighty words, directed unto all believing 
churches, and experienced by them ; but never were, and 
never will be felt by a mere human faith, springing from 
the human intellect. The faith producing heavenly peace, 
and the peace produced, are both the gift of God. 

By the help of this divine faith, the happy Christian 
now repeats his church hymns with truth and pleasure : 
" My soul doth magnify t ie Lord, and my spirit hath re- 
joiced in God my Saviour." Or with old Simeon, " Let 
thy servant depart in peace, Lord, for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." 

Now, sir, hear what your own peace is. You feel no 
distress of mind, but are mighty easy, and your calm, 



46 FAITH PURIFIES THE HEART, 

which is a dead calm, ariseth from your character, though 
a sinful character at best. Your peace brings no heavenly 
joy, and so comes not from heaven, neither does it flow en- 
tirely through the golden conduit of the Saviour's merit, 
but drippeth from a rotten wooden pipe of your own 
duties. You are, it seems, a cheerful, harmless creature, 
like a robin-red-breast, who is much respected everywhere ; 
and you frequent the church, as many a pious mouse will, 
yet does not like her quarters : prayer-books are dry 
champing — a pantry suits her better. And you see many 
who are worse than yourself, abundantly, which makes 
you hope your state is good ; and, while outward things 
go smooth, your calm continues. But when calamities 
come on, and thicken as they come, your peace is gone ; it 
cannot stand a tempest. And when your soul is hovering 
on a sick bed for its flight, it will either feel a dead secur- 
ity, or take a frightful leap into another world. Unless 
you are supported by divine faith, you cannot sing the 
Christian's dying song, death, where is thy sting ? 
grave, where is thy victory ? 

Now, sir, we proceed to another point of faith, and a 
choice one too, very savory and nourishing to a true be- 
liever. St. Peter tells us thai faith purifies the heart ; 
and St. John affirms, This is the victory whereby we 
overcome the ivorld, even our faith ; and he tells us what 
he means by the world, even the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eye, and the pride of life. 

Come, sir, bring your face to the gospel-glass, and han- 
dle this point well, like an old grazier. Does your faith 
overcome the lust of the flesh, making you victorious over 
your palate, and over outward pollution, and inward un- 
cleanness? 



AND OVERCOMES THE WORLD. 47 

Does your faith overcome the lust of the eye, and keep 
your heart from gasping after more wealth, more prefer- 
ment, or more honors ? Having food and raiment, have 
you learnt therewith to be content ? 

Does your faith overcome the pride of life, and prevent 
your being charmed with a lofty house, rich furniture, 
genteel equipage, and splendid raiment ? Does it make you 
sick of earthly vanities, and draw your heart to things above ? 

Speak, sir, and speak honestly. If you are a slave to 
these matters, and a quiet slave, you may keep your faith, 
Satan will not steal it from you. The devils do believe, 
and tremble, but are devils still. 

One point more, sir, and we have done. Faith is not 
only intended to pacify the conscience, and purify the 
heart, but also to rescue the mind from earthly troubles. 
Our passage through life is attended with storms. We 
sail upon a boisterous sea, where many tempests are felt, 
and many are feared which look black and bode mischief, 
but pass over. Now faith is designed for an anchor to 
keep the mind steady, and give it rest; even as Isaiah 
saith, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 
is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. 

Precious promises, suited to our wants, are scattered 
through the Bible, and divine faith will feed upon the 
promises, looking unto Jesus to fulfil them, but human 
faith can reap no profit from them. Let me suppose you 
in distressful circumstances, and, while musing on them 
with an anxious heart, you cast a look upon a distant Bi- 
ble. The book is fetched and opened, and this passage 
meets your eye, Call upon me in the day of trouble, 1 
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Here you 



48 SCRIPTURE PROMISES, 

view a gracious promise, made by a faithful (rod, and 
made without limitation or condition, directed unto every 
one that reads or hears it, applicable to every time of trou- 
ble, and requiring only prayer of faith for deliverance. 
Yet, sir, it is possible this blessed promise might not even 
draw a prayer from you : perhaps it gains a little musing, 
and the book is closed ; or, if it should extort a feeble cry, 
the prayer does not ease your heart, nor fetch deliverance, 
for want of faith. 

You know the word of Jesus, all things ivhatsoever ye 
shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. But for 
want of faith, your reasoning heart will ask, ''From 
whence can this deliverance come ? " What is that to 
you, sir? God keeps the means of deliverance out of 
sight, on purpose to exercise our faith, but promises to 
make a tvay for our escape, though we can see none. 

Or perhaps you may surmise, " This promise, was not 
meant for me ; I am not worthy of it." Sir, God's prom- 
ise is not made to compliment your worthiness, but to 
manifest the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus. Did you 
mind how the promise runs ? It is not said, " Glorify me 
first and afterward " I will deliver thee," which would 
be making man's worthiness a foundation for God's bless- 
ing ; but he says, " I will deliver thee, and then thou 
shalt glorify me." 

Faith considers all the promises as freely made to sup- 
ply our wants, and rest upon the Loicl's faithfulness to 
fulfil them ; and when a promise is fulfilled, adores the 
mercy, and glorifies the Lord for it. In this way, and 
this only, he gets some hearty rent of praise. Such free 
deliverance wins the heart, and binds it to the Lord, and 
makes obedience cheerful. 



BANK NOTES OF HEAVEN. 49 

I know a man who spends his income yearly, because he 
has no family ; as little as he can upon himself, and the 
rest upon his neighbors. He keeps no purse against a 
rainy day, and wants none : Jesus Christ is his banker, 
and a very able one. Sometimes, by sickness, or unfore- 
seen expenses, he gets behind hand — and greatly so. At 
such times, he does not run about among his earthly friends 
to seek relief, but falleth on his knees, and calls upon his 
banker, saying, " Lord, I am in want, and thou must help 
me. Here I bring thy gracious promise, look upon it, 
Jesus. It says, Call upon me in the time of trouble, I 
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Lord, I 
call, and thou dost hear ; I believe, and thou art faithful ; 
be it now unto me according to thy word." Such prayers, 
he said, never failed to bring supplies — some from those 
who cared for him, and some from such as did avoid his 
company. For Jesus Christ has every heart and purse 
in his own hand, and often makes a raven feed his proph- 
ets, or makes the earth to help the woman, to shew his 
finger clearly in such deliverance. 

Scripture promises are real bank-notes of heaven, and 
the true riches of believers, who do not live on stock in 
hand, but traffic with this paper currency. Where divine 
faith is found, it takes the notes to Christ's bank and re- 
ceives the cash. But human faith cannot traffic with this 
paper, it reads the notes, and owns them good, but dares 
not take them to the skies for payment. No faith can 
truly act on Grod but that which comes from God. 

Prayer of faith, exercised with perseverance, surely 
brings deliverance, if not immediately, yet at a proper 
season ; and, till deliverance comes, the mind is stayed 

D 



50 PRAYER OF FAITH 

on God, and kept in perfect peace. Faith picks the 
thorns out of the flesh, and takes the rankling pain away 
before the wound is healed. 

Truly, doctor, now you make me thoughtful. My faith 
will not produce the precious fruit you have mentioned. 
It brings no peace passing all understanding, affords no 
real victory over the world, and yields no sweet relief in 
time of trouble. It picks no thorns out of my flesh : it 
must be counterfeit. My support in trouble arises from 
my purse, or from my friends, and not from 'faith. Yet I 
cannot comprehend how a mere reliance on God's promise 
can charm away our grief, and set the heart at rest before 
deliverance comes. This seems a charm indeed ! 

So it is, sir, and a most delightful charm ; yet not fan- 
ciful, but real, having good foundation in our nature. 
Where divine faith is given, it will act on God as human 
faith will act on man, and produce the same effects. A 
case will make my meaning plan. 

I suppose you, as before, fallen in great distress, and a 
lawyer's letter is received, bringing doleful tidings that 
your person will be seized unless your debts are paid 
within a month. While the letter is perusing, an old 
acquaintance calls upon you, sees a gloom upon your face, 
and ask the cause of it. You put the letter in his hand : 
he reads, and drops a friendly tear. After some little 
pause he says, " Old friend, I have not the cash at pres- 
ent by me, but engage to pay your debts before the month 
is out." Now, sir, if you thought this person was not able 
to discharge your debts, or not to be relied on, because his 
mind was fickle, his promise would bring no relief, because 
it gains no credit. You have no faith in him. But if you 



BRINGS DELIVERANCE. 51 

knew the man was able, and might be trusted, his promise 
would relieve you instantly. A firm reliance on his word 
would take away your burden, and set your mind at ease, 
before the debt was paid. 

Well, sir, if a firm reliance on the word of man has 
this sweet influence on the heart, a firm reliance on the 
word of God will have the same. Why should it not ? 
God's word deserveth as much credit, surely, as the word 
of man. He is as able to perform, and as faithful to 
fulfil his promise as your neighbor. No one ever trusted 
in him and ivas confounded. And where the mind is 
stayed on God, it will be kept in perfect peace, before 
deliverance comes. Such may say, with David, God is 
our refuge, therefore we will not fear, though the earth 
be removed, and the mountains carried into the midst of 
the sea. Or with Habakkuk, Though the fig-tree should 
not blossom, nor fruit be in the vine ; though the olive 
too should fail, and the fields yield no meat ; though the 
flock be cut off from the fold, and no herd be found in 
the stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord ; I will joy in 
the God of my salvation. The prop of God's faithful 
word cannot break ; and a human heart, resting firmly on 
it, never can sink • and men might learn to feel their 
unbelief, for want of this support in trouble. The prop 
stands ready on the king's highroad, to support all weary 
passengers, but they have not faith to lean upon it, else 
they would find rest. 

In speculation, it seems as easy io trust a faithful God 
as trust and upright man ; but in practice it is found oth- 
erwise. When trials come, men cannot trust a faithful 
God without divine assistance — so trust him as to cast 



52 TRUST IN GOD. 

their burden on him, and obtain his perfect peace. Here 
the charm of faith ceaseth, because there is no faith to charm. 

If, in time of trouble, some prospect of deliverance is 
afforded by a human arm, men often put a cheat upon 
themselves, and talk of trusting God, while they are only 
leaning on a human shoulder. Remove this earthly prop, 
and take away all human prospect of relief, and the man 
cries out, " What must I do ? I am undone." He can- 
not rest upon God's naked word, nor seat his heart upon 
the solid chair of promise, without some human stool 
beside. 

Faith is just the same thing now it was in Abraham's 
day toho, against hope, believed in hope. He had no 
human prospect of an heir, and yet expected one, relying 
wholly on God's naked promise. And a naked promise 
is the whole support of divine faith now. Jesus Christ 
will admit no partner for our faith. He is worthy of 
full credit, and expects it ; and we must either look to 
him alone, or look to be confounded. He will be all or 
nothing. 

Nay, doctor, now you press too hard upon Jesus Christ. 
He is a very good Saviour, to be sure, but we must not 
put upon him neither. What ? lay all the burden of sal- 
vation on him ! This does not seem reasonable, nor is 
it using him handsomely. So he must do all the work, 
and I must stand by as a lazy thief, to see it done. No, 
no, doctor, I shall not make a packhorse of my Saviour, 
but would use him with good manners ; and, whilst I look 
for great things from him, will try to do something for 
myself. 

Sir, the best manners you can shew towards superiors 



CHRIST A WHOLE SAVIOUR. 53 

is to do as you are bid, and not gainsay their orders, by a 
wilful pertness, or an ill-timed modesty. You honor Jesus 
by employing him as a whole Saviour, and you rob him of 
his glory, and excite his indignation, wheji you steal a por- 
tion of his royal sceptre, or his priestly censer, or his 
prophet's staff from him. He is appointed for a Saviour — - 
not a scanty, but a full one — and he never does his work 
by halves. The work creates no hurry, and is found no 
burden. He speaks, or wills, and it is done. Do not, 
therefore, compliment him with your idle manners, but 
obey his orders, which are these, Look unto me and he 
saved, all the ends of the earth, for 1 am God and none 
else, or nothing less, and therefore able to save. Jesus 
does not beg of you to look a little to yourself, and the 
rest to him ; but commands you to look singly unto him 
for heavenly wisdom to direct you, for heavenly peace to 
bless you, and for heavenly grace to sanctify you. And 
he has left a faithful word for your encouragement, that 
whosoever helieveth (or trusteth) in him, shall be saved 
— saved from spiritual darkness, and from the guilt and 
power of sin. 

You talk of looking to yourself, which bespeaks some 
confidence in yourself, but Jesus has pronounced a curse 
on every human confidence. Hear his awful declaration, 
Thus saith the Lord, cursed is the man who trusteth in 
man, (in himself or in another), he shall be like the heath 
in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh. But 
take the blessing too, and may it reach your heart. Bless- 
ed is the man who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope 
the Lord is ; he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, 
which spreadeth out its roots by the river, and does not 



54: A SINGLE EYE TO CHEIST 

regard when drought cometh, but its leaf is green, and it 
never ceaseth yielding fruit. 

If your eye is single, directed wholly unto Christ, you 
will be full of light and peace ; but if your eye is double, 
peeping upon Jesus., and squinting towards men, you will 
be full of darkness, and be at length confounded. 

The life of faith is called the fight of faith ; and truly 
called so. For, where divine faith is given, it is seldom 
exercised without a conflict in the heart, which loves an 
earthly refuge, and dreads a naked promise ; dearly loves 
a human prop, and always seeks some wooden buttress to 
support G-od's iron pillar. 

On this account, men dare not singly trust in Christ's 
atonement for their peace, but clap their feeble shoulder 
to his cross, to strengthen it ; nor dare they rest on Je- 
sus' grace, to make them holy, but call up human arms 
to stay gigantic lusts within ; nor can they trust in Jesus' 
guidance to make them wise unto salvation, but call the 
wisdom of the world in, an utter niglit-piece, to chase 
away the world's darkness. 

Many yet are so obliging as to let the Saviour have a 
share in the work of man's salvation, but Jesus does not 
thank them for this condescension. He rejects that faith 
which does not centre in him only, and rest the heart en- 
tirely on him. He wants no partner, and will admit of 
none ; nor were he worthy of the name of Saviour, if sal- 
vation was not wholly from him. 

Hear what he says of himself, I have trodden the wine- 
press alone : Hooked and there was none to help ; there- 
fore mine own arm brought salvation. 

Hear what a prophet says of him, Behold ! the Lord 



NECESSARY TO SALVATION. 5D 

God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall 
rule : he shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall 
gather the lambs with his arm, and he shall carry them 
in his bosom. Where, you may observe, all partners are 
excluded from this work. The Lord Jesus, who is called 
the Lord God, shall act the part of a shepherd, and lay 
down his life for the sheep ; and, by treading the wine- 
press alone, shall make the atonement himself: then he 
will gather the flock, and feed the flock, and carry the 
flock home himself. Jesus Christ does not help you to 
help yourself ; but he does the whole work himself : Ms 
own arm shall ride. 

Indeed, where men are quickened by the Holy Spirit. 
and well convinced of their sinfulness and helplessness, 
they are now enabled to use the means of grace properly, 
ancbmust use them diligently, but the whole work still is 
in the Saviour's band. He must guide the understanding. 
by his Spirit, into all saying truth ; he must bring his 
blood-bought peace to the conscience ; he must tame the 
tempers, sanctify the affections, and make us cheerfully 
disposed for all good works. Our business is to watch and 
pray, and it is the Saviour's office to work in us to will and 
do. What will and power he gives, we may exercise, and 
nothing more. He only can increase ifc who first gave it. 

Paul says, It has pleased the Father, that in Christ 
Jesus, (in his human nature, as a temple), all fidness 
shoidd dwell. All fulness of wisdom to direct us, of 
power to protect us, of grace to pardon and sanctify us. 
And this all fulness is treasured up in Christ the head. 
to be communicated to the members of his body. What- 
ever wisdom, strength, peace, or righteousness arc not re-r 



56 WISDOM OF THE V/OKLD 

ceived from this storehouse, by faith, are spurious, a mere 
tinsel ware, which may glitter much, but has no value. 

Paul says further, Christ is all and in all. He is 
possessed of an all fulness, that he might be not some- 
thing only in our wisdom, strength, peace, and righte- 
ousness, but all in every thing, and all in every person ; 
all in the Greek as well as the barbarian ; all in the 
scholar as well as in the rustic. 

And St. John says, We beheld Christ's glory, full of 
grace and truth ; and out of his fulness have we all 
received, even grace for grace. Where the apostle shews 
that a believer's business is to receive supplies of grace 
out of Christ's fulness. 

Doctor, I cannot comprehend that Jesus Christ must 
be all in wisdom to a scholar, as well as to a countryman. 
If human learning will not help to make us wise unto sal- 
vation, of what use is it, and wherefore do we value it ? 
My landlord is reckoned a monstrous scholar : he has 
been at Cambridge, and travelled abroad, and talks 
French at a wonderful rate. He is always at his books ; 
and makes eclipses when he pleaseth. We hear he put 
in four into Dyer's almanac the last year. One day he 
took me into his study, and showed me all his learning. 
Bless me, what a sight ! More books, by half, upon his 
shelves, than I have bullocks in my pastures ! And they 
seem well handled, for I did not spy a mouldy book in the 
study, except an old Bible, which lay drooping in a cor- 
ner. I suppose it was his grandfather's. Now, doctor, 
does it not seem likely that my landlord must get more 
Christian knowledge from his vast gilded heap of books 
than I can get from a plain single Bible ? 



FOOLISHNESS WITH GOD. 57 

Human science, sir, keeps men out of mischief, trains 
them up for civil occupations, and oft produceth notable 
discoveries, which are useful to the world ; but never can 
lead the heart to Jesus Christ, nor breed a single grain of 
faith in him. They who know most of human science, 
and have waded deepest in it, know the most of its vani- 
ties, and find it but vexation of spirit. 

The heavenly oracles declare the wisdom of the world 
is foolishness with God ; and tell us, not many wise are 
called to possess the gospel kingdom. And surely God 
would never brand the wisdom of the world as folly, if it 
had the least tendency to make men wise unto salvation. 

It will, I think, be found a certain truth, that when 
human science is cultivated eagerly in a Christian country, 
the study of the Bible always grows neglected ; and that 
immorality and infidelity spread their branches equally with 
human science ; and that a learned nation, when arrived 
to its highest pitch of human science, is just become ripe 
for slavery, and doomed to perpetual bondage. Witness 
Egypt, Greece, and Rome. 

Bible knowledge, fetched in by prayer, and watered 
well with meditation, makes the mind humble and serious ; 
but human science lifts men up, makes them vain in their 
imagination, darkens the foolish heart still more, and 
thereby drives them farther off from God. The present 
age is no bad comment on the following Scripture : The 
vjorld by wisdom knew not God. 

Solomon gave his heart to seek wisdom, and knew more 
of the secrets of nature than any man ; yet he found no 
real profit from his study, but calls it vanity, and a sore 
travail which the sons of men are exercised with. This 



58 THE SCHOLAR 

is left on holy record, to direct us what to think of human 
science ; and they who laugh at the direction may chance 
to weep at last, as Grotras did, and repeat his dying 
lamentation. 

Pray, doctor, what was it ? 

Why, sir, as he lay lamenting on his death-bed, calling 
himself the poor 'publican, mentioned in the parable, and 
wishing he might change conditions with John Urick, a 
poor but devout man, some that were present spake to 
Grotius of his great industry and learned performances, 
and spake of them with admiration ; to which he replied, 
with a sigh, " Heu ! vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo ;" 
Alas ! I have squandered my life away laboriously in 
doino- nothing. 

The learned Selclen also, his antagonist, was very much 
of his mind, when he came to die. 

Sir, if you would learn wisdom in the school of Christ. 
Paul affirms, You must become a fool, in order to be 
wise. A crabbed lesson truly, to be learned by a scholar ! 
and a mighty strange expression, yet exceeding proper for 
a scribe, to wake him from his fond delirium, and fetch 
him to his senses. He needs such amazing language to 
make him pause, and gaze about for a meaning. It is a 
block thrown in his way, to stop his vain pursuit. It tells 
a scholar he must go empty unto Jesus, and see himself a 
fool in heavenly science ; as much in daily want of a 
teacher here, as an idiot is of some director in his worldly 
business. 

The master of the school speaks the same kind of lan- 
guage to his scholars, Except ye become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Sa- 






MUST GO EMPTY TO CHRIST. 59 

viol's little child, and the apostle's fool, instruct us how 
to seek heavenly wisdom ; not by drawing it from human 
brains or heathen folios, but by meekly going unto Jesus 
as a little child to be taught, or as a fool to be made 
wise. 

What then, you ask, must we cast away the languages, 
and throw aside the Bible ? By no means. Bead the 
word of Grod with care, and in its native language, if you 
can ; but read it too with prayer ; and not with prayer 
only, but with heart-dependence upon Jesus, while you 
read. Put your eyes into the Saviour's head, while you 
look upon his book j and when his head directs your eyes, 
you will have light enough. 

Scribes in every age have been much akin to the Jew- 
ish scribes, cavillers at Jesus, and rejecters of his doctrine. 
They are too wise to be taught, and too lofty to sit down 
at the feet of Jesus. God will teach the meek his way. 
And the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err. 
But the Lord turneth wise men hachward, and maketh 
their knowledge foolish ; yea, taketh the wise in their own 
craftiness. 

Sir, this subject has been often on my thoughts, and 
much might be said upon it ; but this little shall suffice, 
which perhaps may set all Ephesus in an uproar about 
their goddess ; and make them cry out vehemently, as 
before, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 

Indeed, doctor, I am willing to become a convert here ; 
for the grazier is no scholar, yet endued with common 
sense. And if scholarship is needful for a Christian, it 
seemeth hard that the poor, who are much the largest 
part, should be barred from it unavoidably. And it seem- 



60 Jacob's ladder. 

eth also strange, that the poor should be found ami de- 
clared the chief subjects of the gospel-kingdom. But, 
doctor, if Jesus Christ has all the stores I need, and is in 
heaven ; how must I get at him ? Astronomers, they say, 
by a wooden-pipe will spring up to the skies in a twink ; 
and tell as many pretty stories of the stars, as if they had 
them all in their pocket. I am a gross, unwieldy man, 
you see ; and being born without wings, dare not venture 
on a flight towards the skies. Can you help me to a lad- 
der, which may conduct me thither 3j 

Yes, sir, you may meet with such a one in Genesis 
xxviii. 12, whose foot was resting on the earth, while its 
top was in the skies. 

Jacob saw the ladder in a dream, but Jesus gave the 
vision, to represent himself. The ladder foot, resting on 
the earth, bespeaks his human nature, as the ladder top, 
fairly fixed in the skies, denotes his divine nature ; and 
he stood upon the ladder, to point out the emblem. At 
the incarnation of Jesus, this ladder was truly set up ; 
and much intercourse was then carried on between the 
family above and the family below : therefore angels are 
described as descending and ascending on the ladder. 
And, sir, if Jesus Christ may represent himself by a door, 
why not also by a ladder ? 

Jesus explains the riddle, when he tells Nicodemus, 
No man hath ascended up to heaven, hut he that came 
down from heaven, even the So/i of man, who is in 
heaven, is now in heaven by his divine nature, while his 
human nature, like the ladder's foot, rests on earth. 
Again, he tells his disciples, where I am, there shall ye 
he also. He does not say, where I shall be, there shall 



A VISION OF CHRIST. 61 

ye be also ; but where I now am, even in heaven by my 
divine nature, there also shall my servant be. 

Doctor, this vision of Jacob may be a very suitable 
emblem ; but I fear it will not help me to the skies. A 
visionary ladder may suit a light-heeled angel, but will 
not suit my heavy body. I shall certainly either miss the 
rounds, or they will break and let me drop ; and a fall, 
only from the moon, would make lamentable work with 
my carcass. Therefore, unless you can provide me with 
another ladder, I must grovel still on earth. But does 
it not seem strange that angels should wait on men? 
I do not wait upon my servant Tom, though he is my fel- 
low creature. Indeed this service of the angels oft 
amazeth me. 

Sir, God's two families of angels and men, seem by the 
covenant of grace to be brought into one, and to bear a 
joint relation to a common head, Christ Jesus. Man, one 
branch, was cast out of order by the fall of Adam ; and 
angels, the other branch, were in danger of falling, as ap- 
pears by the ruin of their fellows. Both the families are 
now brought under one head, and the two branches grafted 
into a common stock, Christ Jesus. Henceforth they 
receive all supplies immediately from this new head. In 
him they all unite, on him they all depend for peace and 
safety. By him angels are preserved from committing 
sin, and men redeemed from sin committed. Through 
him angels receive a confirmation in glory, and men obtain 
admission into glory. 

This seems to be St. Paul's meaning when he says, 

That in the dispensation (of grace manifested) at the 

full (or proper) lime, God (uraxscpcdaimrvoOui) hath 



62 TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

gathered up again, into one head, even Christ, all 
things which are in heaven, and which are on earth. 
Hence, the whole family in heaven and earth, (being 
thus united to Christ) are named from him. And as 
angels are the chief or higher branch of the family, they 
become waiting servants on the lower branch, according to 
Christ's command, Whoever will he chief among you, 
let him become your servant. 

It is not wonderful that angels wait on men, when the 
Lord of angels came from heaven to wait himself upon 
them, and to die for them. And this should teach supe- 
riors to pay the utmost condescension and the kindest offi- 
ces to all beneath them. Angels perform this waiting ser- 
vice with cheerfulness, because there is no pride in heaven 
— that foul weed only groweth upon rotten dunghills. 

But, sir, if Jacob's ladder does not suit your purpose, 
another may be had. My master was a carpenter ; he 
built the skies, and coming down to earth, he took a trade 
adapted to his work above. He can provide you with 
another ladder, decked with golden rounds of faith, by 
which you may ascend up to his seat, and fetch down 
needful stores. 

That is good news, doctor, for I am growing weary of 
my own ladder. It has been fifty years in my possession, 
and never raised my heart a single step above the earth. 
I am just as anxious now about the world as I was, and 
find no more desire to pray than I used to do ; and as for 
peace passing all understanding, I know no more how it 
tastes, than of old hock or French burgundy. Pray, in- 
form me of what materials your ladder is composed, and 
how it differs from the common human one, which every 
country carpenter can make. 



ONE OF DIVINE ORIGIN. 63 

True Christian faith, sir, is of divine origin. It does 
not grow upon the fallows of nature, nor in the garden of 
science ; neither spruceness of wit, nor solidity of judg- 
ment can produce it. An astronomic eye, though vault- 
ing to the stars, cannot reach it j and a metaphysic head, 
though wrapped deep in clouds, cannot understand it. It 
is no endowment or acquirement of nature, but the gift 
of God and wrought by the operation of his Spirit. 

Hainan faith is only human assent to the word of God, 
which may be quickly given ; so the shield is forged at a 
single welding, and believers sprout up hastily, like mush- 
rooms. Thus a proselyte who takes a new creed becomes 
a convert instantly ; he needs but turn about, just as the 
wind of fancy blows, and this is called conversion. But 
he may turn a protestant, a churchman, a methodist, a 
baptist, a deist, and be zealous too at every turn, while 
the wind blows, yet never turn to God. 

This human faith, sprouting from an helpless mind, can 
produce no heavenly fruit ; but leaves a man just as it 
found him. Hence it is vilified, as well it may ; and none 
but madmen ever could dream of being saved by this hu- 
man faith. It takes a quiet lodging in the understanding, 
and sleepeth there ; and being only lodged there, a devil 
may and does possess it. 

Doctor, you deal mainly with the devil, but I cannot 
blame you. Pulpit-lips, like pulpit-cushions, are chiefly 
lined with velvet. Amazing reverence is shown to Satan 
in a pulpit ; it seems the privy closet of his highness. We 
never hear his name or habitation mentioned in a modern 
sermon ; which make some people fancy that the devil 
sure is dead, and that hell-fire is quite burnt out. Nay, 



64 HUMAN FAITH FEUITLESS. 

I am told that Jesus Christ did put the devil's name into 
his short prayer, and called him the evil one, hut some 
roguish body wiped his name out from our English trans- 
lation. However, let that matter pass, and tell me some- 
thing more about believing. If faith is not a mere human 
assent to the word of God, what is it, doctor ? 

Divine faith, sir, takes in this assent to the word of 
God, but takes in more abundantly. It is described in 
Scripture by coming to Jesus for help, looking to him for 
relief, flying to him for refuge, resting on him for sup- 
port, and feeding on him, as our heavenly bread. Which 
expressions not only suppose a credit given to his word 
by the understanding, but a full reliance of the heart upon 
him to fulfil his word. The exercise of faith lieth chiefly 
in the heart, as Paul testifies, With the heart man believ- 
eth unto righteousness. Thus faith is not a mere credit 
given to the word of Jesus, but a heart trust reposed in 
him ; and therefore called believing on him. 

The miracles recorded in the Gospel shew the nature 
and the use of faith ; they tell a sinner what his business 
is with the Saviour, and how he must go to him. 

Some came to Jesus for the pardon of sin, and received 
a pardon ; others brought diseases, and were healed. 
Each bodily complaint, brought to Christ, was an emblem 
of some spiritual disease in our nature, which needs a 
healing, and can be healed only by the spiritual phy- 
sician. 

The manner also of applying for a cure is not recorded 
as a matter of mere history, but an example for imitation. 
Every one who went and got a cure calls on you, sir, to 
o-o and do likewise. This matter is important ; all are 



Christ's patients. 65 

much concerned in it, and a few remarks upon it may be 
needful. 

When the patients went to Christ, they plead no 
worthiness to recommend them. They do not come to 
buy but beg a cure. They carry no money in their caps, 
and bring no merit in their mouths, to purchase blessings, 
but come as miserable creatures, and in a worshipping 
posture, to obtain an act of mercy. 

So must you go unto Jesus, if you hope to speed ; feel- 
ing yourself a miserable sinner, worshipping the Saviour, 
and seeking mercy to relieve your misery. Though in 
heaven, Jesus Christ is near you, round about you, always 
within call ; and when your wants are felt, you may go 
and be healed. Ileal beggars are relieved now, as afore- 
time ; for Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever ; but he turns sham-beggars from his door with in- 
dignation, just as we do — beggars who can make a bawl- 
ing of their misery and feel none. 

Again, the patients come to Jesus, not as miserable 
creatures only, but as helpless ones, quite unable to re- 
lieve themselves. Some had tried human means ; and 
some had wasted all their substance on those means ; but 
finding no relief, they come at last to Jesus, and seek a 
cure from his hand alone. Blind Bartimeus does not 
dream of putting one eye in, while Jesus puts the other ; 
nor does the leper hope to help the Lord to scour away 
his leprosy. The patients who applied to Jesus expected 
all their help from him. 

So must you apply, if you expect relief ; not vainly 
dreaming -of a power to help yourself, and idly compli- 
menting Jesus with a prayer for help ; not hoping you 

E 



66 THEY CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES. 

may couch one eye by human wisdom, while Jesus tries 
to couch the other ; not boasting you can heal some lep- 
rous spots yourself, while Jesus scours away the rest. 
Such haughty beggars meet no relief from Christ : he 
will be all or nothing. 

Again, the patients came to Jesus, not only as misera- 
ble creatures, and helpless, but as believers, who thought 
him able to help, and expected help from his mercy. 
This matter of believing was of the utmost consequence, 
and therefore Jesus usually either asks a patient, before a 
cure, believest thou that I am about to do this ? . Or tells 
him after a cure, thy faith hath saved thee. And this 
was said to inform the attending crowd, that faith procured 
the blessing. For, though a patient's misery and help- 
lessness brought him unto Christ, it was faith alone that 
obtained the blessing. The patient got what he wanted, 
by a firm reliance on the power and mercy of this divine 
physician : Thy faith hath saved thee. 

Even so it is now, sir. If you desire help from Jesus, 
you must not seek to him with a vain opinion of your 
own worth to recommend yourself, nor of your own power 
to help yourself, but must place your whole dependence 
on his mercy and his power to save you. Your whole 
expectation of pardon must be from Ms blood, and your 
whole expectation of holiness from Ms Spirit. He alone 
must wash you, and he alone must work in you to will 
and do. And if your eye is single, singly fixed upon 
Jesus, he will shew himself a Saviour, and fill you nota- 
bly with heavenly light and peace. 

When you pray to Jesus Christ to save you-from the 
guilt and power of sin, remember, sir, he asks you, by 



HEATHEN PRAYERS. 67 

his word, the same question now which he asked afore- 
time, Believest thou that I am able to do this ? Not 
you and I together. No ; but believest thou that I — I 
without you — I alone, am able to do this ? And till 
you can answer this question truly, and say, " Lord, I do 
believe it," your petitions will draw down no blessing. 

Many prayers are made, and meet with no success. 
The petitioners continue slaves to evil tempers and affec- 
tions, because their petitions are not offered up in faith. 
Such heathen prayers never reach the skies, but are drop- 
ped in a church on a Sunday, swept out on Monday by 
the sexton, and applied with other rubbish, to cherish 
some bald grave. 

Lastly, when patients came to Jesus, miserable, help- 
less, and believing, they never would, and never did 
depart without a cure. Sometimes they were neglected 
at the first application, and sometimes much discouraged 
by a seemingly rough answer, but at length their request 
was granted. And when any met with much discourage- 
ment before they gained a blessing, they were dismissed, 
not with huge encomiums on their honesty, sobriety, and 
charity (very needful things in their proper place, and 
might belong to the patients,) but they were sent away 
with rare commendations of their faith : woman, great 
is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. 

And so it is now, sir. All that seek to Jesus Christ, 
with a due sense of their misery and helplessness, and 
with a single trust on his power and mercy, will obtain 
what they seek. They may wait a while at mercy's gate, 
and meet with some discouragement ; but at length it will 
be opened. The mourners will be comforted with par- 



68 THE PARISH WAT 

dons, and weary sinners will find rest unto their souls. 
Thus the promises, which are only gazed on by others as 
a fine picture, prove a heavenly feast to them. By faith 
they are possessed and enjoyed, as they were intended, 
which brings abundant praise to God. 

Once, sir, I went to Jesus, like a coxcomb, and gave 
myself fine airs, fancying if he was something, so was I ; 
if he had merit, so had I. And, sir, I used him as a 
healthy man will use a walking staff, lean an ounce upon 
it, or vapour with it in the air. But now he is my whole 
crutch, no foot can stir a step without him. He is my 
all, as he ought to be, if he will become my Saviour ; 
and he bids me cast, not some, but all my care upon 
him. 

My heart can have no rest unless it leans upon him 
wholly, and then it feels his peace. But I am apt to 
leave my resting-place, and when I ramble from it my 
heart will quickly brew up mischief. Some evil temper 
now begins to boil, or some care would fain perplex me, 
or some idol wants to please me, or some deadness or 
some lightness creeps upon my spirit, and communion 
with my Saviour is withdrawn. When these thorns stick 
in my flesh, I do not try, as heretofore, to pick them out 
with my own needle, but carry all complaints to Jesus, 
casting every care upon him. His office is to save, and 
mine to look for help. 

If evil tempers rise, I go to him as some demoniac ; 
if deadness creeps upon me, I go a paralytic ; if dissipa- 
tion comes, I go a lunatic ; if darkness clouds my peace, 
I go a Bartimeus j and when I pray, I always go a leper, 
crying, as Isaiah did, Unclean ! unclean ! 



OP GOING TO CHRIST. 69 

If but a little faith is mixed with my prayer, which is 
too oft the case, I get but little help, and find the Lord's 
word true, According to your faith it shall be done unto 
you. And St. James rebukes me sternly, Ask in faith, 
nothing wavering, else you shall receive nothing from 
the Lord. 

Thus the miracles instruct me how to go to Jesus ; and 
every miracle explains the meaning of that general invi- 
tation which Jesus gives to sinners — Gome unto me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. And, sir, unless you come in this appointed way, 
you will find no more relief from the king of Israel than 
from the king of Poland. 

Indeed, doctor, we have nothing to trouble us in our 
parish, besides family cares and bodily infirmities. The 
vicar's chief complaint is about his large family and 
scanty income ; and the old clerk's weekly moan is about 
his rusty voice, which cannot rear a psalm without a woful 
outcry. On Sundays we march to church in our best 
clothes, and are decently seated in pews, which are swept 
every Christmas. Aged people look grave enough, but 
the young ones stare about them, and are peeping at 
every one who steps into the church ; for we keep drop- 
ping in all prayer- time. And during the sermon, which 
is soon dispatched, some listen, others giggle ; and when 
the weather waxes warm, a few are half awake, and the 
rest are dropped asleep ; which proves they have no bur- 
den. This is our parish way of going unto Jesus Christ j 
and as for yours, doctor, it seems more suitable for thieves 
and harlots than for honest folks. 
• Sir, if it suits a thief and harlot, it will suit you all 



70 GENTEEL PROFESSORS 

exactly. You are robbing Grod of bis service daily, -winch 
is the worst of robbery, and yet but little heeded. You 
defraud your Maker and your hourly benefactor of his 
worship and obedience, and cannot feel your infamous 
ingratitude. If a villain takes away your property or 
good name, you raise an outcry presently ; but though you 
daily rob God of his service and his honor, you can wipe 
your mouth, and think no harm is done. Your heart too is 
full of uncleanness ; no harlot's heart need be more 
unclean ; and your eye is full as wanton as your heart. 
Oh, sir, you feel no pain from sin, because your eye is not 
couched to see your malady, nor your conscience yet 
alive to feel your danger. 

In a Christian land, men become Christians by pro- 
fession. And while the life is decent, and the church 
attended, all things pass off mighty well. But it hap- 
pens, these genteel professors are the very troops of Eze- 
kiel's army, before it was quickened ; covered well with 
plump flesh and tair skin, yet no breath was in them ; 
ranged well in rank and file, bone comes to his bone, and 
at a distance seem a famous army ; but on a near approach 
are all dead men. No life is found among them, because 
the Holy Spirit has not breathed upon them. 

So it fared in the prophet's day, and so it fareth now. 
A Christian army still appears, with many decent soldiers 
of kindly flesh and skin, and, when exercised at church, 
are ranked well in order ; bone comes to his bone, and 
a noise of prayer is heard, but no breath of life is found, 
no presence of the Lord bestowed, no quickening aids 
imparted, no cheering consolations granted. It is a 
dead scene of worship, conducted like an undertaker's 



TROOPS OF EZEKTEL'S ARMY. 71 

funeral with very cloudy face, and yawning entertain- 
ment. 

It is not strange that men reject the Gospel, when they 
find no heavenly comfort from it, and are told they must 
expect none here. Who will labor in a service where 
he meets with constant drudgery, and no refreshment ? 
"Who can bear to be much in prayer, unless he finds 
divine communion in it, which is divine refreshment V 
And who will daily read the word of Grod, unless he finds 
it daily food ? Take the food away, the Spirit's applica- 
tion, and we soon grow weary of the Bible, and the spi- 
der weaves his web upon it. Nor is this the worst of 
all; for some, who live upon the altar, now begin, like 
Eli's sons, to kick, at the sacrifice, and, in a mighty rage 
of zeal for the Father, would strip his dear Son of divin- 
ity, and trample on his blood. When this becomes gen- 
eral, we may expect that Jesus Christ will sweep the 
church-lands, as he swept the abbey-lands, out of his vine- 
yard ; and make our Sion, once a praise in the earth, to 
become a hissing and an execration. 

Well, but doctor, I am not yet satisfied that Jesus 
Christ must work all our works in us, and be both author 
and finisher of salvation. What, cannot I help to 
make myself a Christian ? Is the government so wholly 
laid upon his shoulders, that he must do all ? You know 
the old proverb, and proverbs are next to gospel — 
" Every tub must stand on its own bottom." I would 
not undervalue Jesus Christ, nor yet disparage myself. 
At a dead lift I would ask his help ; but his arm and my 
shoulder should act together, and thus raise the sack upon 
my back. 



72 CHRIST THE ROOT 

Sir, your whole help is laid on him, who is mighty to 
save, and saves to the uttermost. He instructs you, by 
the similitude of a vine and its branches, that all the 
spiritual life and fruit of a believer is derived from him. 
Jesus Christ is both the root and stem of this vine. The 
visible stem may denote his human nature ; and the 
invisible root, producing that stem, his divine nature ; and 
believers are branches of this vine. Now, sir, as all the 
branches of a vine receive their birth, growth, and nour- 
ishment, their wood, leaf, and fruit altogether from the 
vine j so all believers receive their birth, growth, and 
nourishment, their life, faith, and fruit from Jesus 
altogether. And, sir, if this similitude be good for 
anything, it proves your will and power are good 
for nothing — good for nothing but to make a Christian 
monkey, who will ape a true believer by his chattering. 

A branch is nothing, and can do nothing without the 
vine. If separated from the vine, it dies immediately. 
Believers too are nothing, and can do nothing without 
Christ ; he is their all in everything ; and if they could 
be separated from him, they would die a spiritual death 
directly. 

Formerly, when I had asked help in prayer, instead of 
looking for that help, and relying on it, I strove to 
help myself, and stripped to fight my adversary. Many 
of these battles I have fought, but never gained any credit 
by them. My foe would drop his head sometimes by a 
blow I gave him, and seemed to be expiring, but revived 
presently, and grew as pert as ever. I found he valued 
not an arm of flesh, but made a very scornful puff at hu- 
man will and might. Often when a fire broke out in my 



AND STEM OF THE VINE. 73 

bosom, the water I threw on to quench it only proved 
oil, and made it burn the faster. The flame of anger 
would continue in my breast till its materials were con- 
sumed, or till another fire broke out. One wave of 
trouble e'erwhile passed over, because another rolled on, 
and took its place. One evil often drove another out, as 
lions drive out wolves ; but in their turns, my bosom was 
a prey to every wild beast in the forest. Or if a quiet 
hour passed, it proved but a dead calm. My heart had 
no delight in God, a stranger yet to heavenly peace and 

At length, after years of fruitless struggling, I was 
shewn the gospel-method of obtaining rest, not by work- 
ing, but believing. A strange and foolish way it seems 
to nature, and so it seemed to me ; but is a most effectual 
way, because it is the Lord's appointed way. 

Jesus says, He that believeth shall be saved. Paul de- 
clares, We who have believed do enter into rest. John 
affirms, This is the victory that overcomes the world, even 
our faith. And Isaiah bore his testimony long before, 
that God would keep the man in perfect peace, whose 
mind was stayed on him. 

I find my bosom is a troubled sea, and none can give 
it rest but that Grod-man, who said to winds and waves, 
" Be still," and they obeyed his voice. And when I 
stand before him, as his patients did of old, imploring and 
expecting help, his help is freely given. None ever 
trusted in him and teas confounded. 

Fain we would grow notable by doing ; it suits our 
legal spirit ; but we can grow valiant and successful only 
by believing. When salvation-work is taken on ourselves, 



74 SIN OF UZZA OURS. 

it resteth on an arm of flesh, and a withered arm, which 
must fail ; but when we wrestle by believing, the arm of 
Jesus is engaged to fight the battle ; and he will and must 
bring victory, else his word and faithfulness would fail. 

Means of grace are put into my hand, but the work is 
in the Lord's. Watching, praying, and believing do be- 
long to me, and these I must be taught of God, or I shall 
never do them right ; but all deliverance comes from Jesus 
Christ. And because he does the work, fights the battle, 
and brings victory, he is rightly called the Saviour. I 
must watch against the inroads of an enemy ; and when 
he comes in sight, must wrestle well with prayer, and fight 
the fight of faith ; but if I thrust my arm into the battle, 
Jesus will withdraw his own : he will be all or nothing. 
And if I lay my hand upon the ark, to help to hold it up, 
as Uzza did, I shall be slain, as Uzza was. 

The crime of Uzza is but little understood ; some think 
it a slight one, and the punishment severe. But the same 
sin destroyed Uzza, which destroyeth every sinner, even 
unbelief. What slew his body, slayeth all the souls that 
perish. He could not trust the "Lord ivholly with his ark, 
but must have a meddling finger, called in the Bible- 
margin, his rashness. Bash worm indeed to help a Grod 
to do his work ! and thousands everywhere are guilty of 
this rashness, and perish by this Uzzaizing. Jesus 
Christ is jealous of his glory as Saviour : he will not share 
it with an other ; and whoso takes it from him shall take 
it at his peril. 

The Saviour's word to an Israelite, is, Fear not, stand 
still, and see the salvation of God. In quietness and 
confidence shall be your strength. Cast thy burden on 



THE GOSPEL LAW. 75 

the Lord, and he shall support thee. Look to me for 
salvation, all the ends of the earth. Call on me in time 
of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 

A stranger to the life of faith makes a sport about be- 
lieving, and thinks no work so easy or so trifling. He 
wonders why such gentle business should be called the 
fight of faith ; and why the chosen twelve should pray for 
faith, when every human brain might quickly furnish out 
a handsome dose. 

For my own part, since first my unbelief was felt, I 
have been praying fifteen years for faith, and praying with 
some earnestness, and am not yet possessed of more than 
half & grain. You smile, sir, I perceive, at the smallness 
of the quantity ; but you would not if you knew its effi- 
cacy. Jesus, who knew it well, assures you that a single 
grain, and a grain as small as mustard seed, would remove 
a mountain ; remove a mountainAovA of guilt from the 
conscience, a mountain-lust from the heart, and any 
mountain-had of trouble from the mind. 

The Gospel law is called the laiv of faith ; and Jesus 
sendeth help according to our faith, and is obliged to send 
it — not through any merit which is found in faith, but by 
virtue of his promise, According to your faith be it unto 
you. 

This law of faith, or a ivhole reliance upon Christ for 
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 
is become an exploded doctrine ; and human arms are 
called in to help the Saviour in his work. Salvation is 
no longer, as St. Paul declares, by grace through faith, 
but by grace and nature jointly. And see, sir, what has 
followed. Morality has lost its right foundation, and 



76 THE LAW OF FAITH. 

is sinking daily, because it resteth on a human shoulder, 
which cannot bear the weight. 

The Gospel too is not only much neglected, but re- 
jected and despised also — a certain consequence of the 
present modish doctrine. A mixed covenant of human 
might and heavenly help, will rest at last on human 
shoulders. 

For, observe, preachers say we must ourselves do some- 
thing in salvation-work, but cannot say how much. They 
do not mark the boundary of grace and nature, because 
they cannot tell what human wit and might may do. Of 
course every man must make the boundary himself. 

One thinks he can do much ; another can do more ; 
and a deist will do all. Why should he not ? You have 
put him in the path, and set his feet a going; and you 
must not be offended if he takes a step beyond you. Per- 
haps yourself can do with only Christ's shoe-latchet, and 
he will cast the latchet too away. If your path be right, 
he may enlarge his step just as he pleaseth ; for you can- 
not mark the ground where he ought to stop. 

Thus, when the doctrines of human merit or of human 
might are preached, they must naturally, and will judi- 
cially end in deism, or a total rejection of the grace of 
Christ ; because no limit can be fixed where that human 
merit, or this human might shall end. If Jesus Christ is 
not all in every thing, he will become a cypher. 

Paul says, salvation is of faith, that it might be by 
grace — that is, we must be saved by faith alone in Christ, 
by a whole dependence upon him for every thing, other- 
wise salvation cannot be by grace, cannot be a mere mat- 
ter of grace. If men retain some native will and power 



CHRIST MUST BE ALL IN EVERYTHING. 77 

to save themselves, and exercise it properly, so far they 
are saved, not by dependence upon Jesus, but by a pro- 
per exercise of their own abilities. Adam was endowed 
with native will and power to save himself, and had he 
persevered in a right use of those powers, he would not 
have been saved by grace at all, but by works altogether. 
And if fallen man has yet some power to save himself, 
and makes a proper use thereof, so far he is saved by his 
own works ; but then, says Paul, pray what becomes of 
grace ? If you are truly saved by grace, it must be 
through faith alone. Your whole dependence must be 
fixed on Jesus, and your obligations rise entirely from 
him, else you are not saved by grace. What you can do 
for yourself, you need not be obliged to another for ; no 
grace is wanted here. 

And as salvation, in a covenant of grace, must be 
through faith alone, so that covenant supposes that we 
want such grace, for God will offer nothing needlessly, not 
even grace. 

A fallen man has no more power than a fallen angel to 
sanctify his nature, or to make .atonement for sin. Man 
fell through pride, as angels did ; and to humble man in 
his recovery, he must go clean out of himself for salvation. 
His whole dependence must be on the Saviour's blood for 
pardon, and on the Saviour's grace for holiness. There- 
fore Jesus saith, Look to me, and he saved. 

But, sir, a little recollection how it fares with yourself 
and neighbors would save a deal of talking on this matter. 
You arc an aged man, and seem an honest man, and must 
have tried what human strength can do. Are your tongue 
and temper better bridled than they were some forty years 



78 SPIRITUAL DEATH 

ago ? Can you love and feed an enemy much better? Can 
you deal your bread more freely to the hungry; and more 
cheerfully submit to sickness, pain, and worldly disap- 
pointments ? Are you growing more humble, and more 
vile in your own eyes ? Can you pray more frequently 
and fervently, and walk with God more closely, and find 
the comfort of his presence ? Is the word of God more 
read, and read with sweeter savor? Can you keep a 
stricter watch upon your bosom, and find more power 
over bosom-sins ? Is your cage more cleanly, and your 
den well scoured ? Survey yourself all over, then call 
upon your neighbors, and ask them all the same questions, 
and see what answers they will make. I fear you will 
find no great amendment, and can have no room to vaunt 
of human strength, but abundant room for self-condemna- 
tion. 

As for the tub you mentioned, it has lost its bottom, 
sir, above five thousand years ; and it would be strange 
indeed if it stood upon a bottom when it had none. Adam 
has unbottomed all our vessels, and left us no foundation 
to rest upon but Jesus Christ. Adam fell, and ruined 
all his race. 

Indeed, doctor, I have the vanity to think myself as 
good a man as Adam was before he fell. Why should 
his fall put my nose out of joint ? Could he not stumble 
without throwing me down ? Perhaps, he did receive a 
bruise, and his ankle might be sprained, but I do not read 
that he broke his neck, or broke a leg, by the fall. Does 
the Scripture intimate that his whole nature was impaired, 
and that he fell from his .first estate altogether. 

So I think, sir, but hear and judge. The Lord tells 






THE RESULT OF MAN'S TRANSGRESSION. 79 

Adam, In the day he eateth he shall surely die. Adam 
did eat of the tree, and of course he died on the day he 
ate, if the word of Grod is true and faithful. But what 
death did Adam die on the clay he ate ? Not a natural, 
but a spiritual death. All spiritual life ceased on the day 
he sinned, and his soul was dead to Grod. His animal 
life became a sickly and a mortal one, and the spiritual 
life expired in him, as in the sinning angels. 

To fancy that mere mortality was only meant by the 
threatening, is a strange perversion of Grod's awful sen- 
tence, which does not say, Thou shalt be liable to death, 
but thou shalt surely die. 

Adam lived nine hundred years after his transgression, 
and might have lived nine millions, consistently enough 
with mere mortality, but not with the threatening. And 
if one expositor may add the word liable to the threaten- 
ing, in order to shove it from the spirit, why may not 
another add the little word not, to shove it from the body 
too ? So the threatening runs thus — In the day thou 
eatest, thou shalt not be liable to death ; and all is safe 
and well. The threatening proveth only papal thunder. 

But why must all the threatening light upon the body, 
and the curse be spent upon it altogether ? The whole 
^nature sinned, and the whole should suffer. The body 
lost its healthy state, and the spirit sure should lose its 
healthy state too. Nay, the spirit was the chief in trans- 
gression, and should bear the chief share of punishment. 
If the body grew sickly through sin, the soul should be 
sick to death. When a gang of thieves is taken, the cap- 
tain of the gang is sure to suffer, whatever happens to the 
rest. But here the captain in rebellion is reprieved, and 



80 THE CHANGE IN ADAM'S STATE 

the underling is hanged : the spirit strangely escapes with- 
out a hurt, and the curse falls wholly on the poor body. 

The change of Adam's state is pointed out by the fol- 
lowing circumstances : — 

1. After the fall he desired no fellowship with God, 
but dreaded it. When the Lord calls, he flies, and would 
avoid all converse with him. The language of his heart 
was this, "Depart from me, I desire no knowledge of 
thee, or communion with thee." 

2. His understanding now was clouded, and a spiritual 
darkness crept upon it. He has lost the right knowledge 
of God, and thinks his Maker sees with human eyes, or 
useth spectacles. For he is no sooner called but he slips 
behind a tree, as a mouse will slip behind a tile, to hide 
himself. 

3. His breast was now become the seat of evil tempers, 
such as devils feel ; and felt as Adam did, through dis- 
obedience. Their bosoms once, like his, were the blessed 
seat of heavenly peace, and love, and joy ; but when sin 
entered, they became a woful seat of war, where wrath 
and envy, pride and stubbornness, and every evil temper 
reign. Adam shews this devilish bosom, when examined ; 
for though examined with much tenderness, he makes no 
meek confession, nor deigns to urge a single prayer for 
mercy. He acts a stubborn part, flies in the face of God, 
and dares to lay the blame at his Maker's door, as if the 
woman had been made on purpose to seduce him : The 
woman whom thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree. 

4. Adam's heart, through sin, became a cage of all un- 
cleanness. Before his fall he felt no shame, though 
naked ; but when he fell, such filthy lusts sprung up, as 



AFTER THE FALL. 81 

brought him shame enough, and made him seek a covering 
for his person. 

5. Adam's first-born child proves a murderer. A hope- 
ful heir, truly ! Where the fruit shows the stock, and 
declares them both possessed of his nature, who is called 
a murderer from the beginning. And if St. John is 
credited, thai whoso hates his brother is a murderer, then 
every child of Adam, in his turn, has been a murderer 
too. 

Now, sir,jre may debate the point a little. If angels 
lost their first estate by sin, it is not wonderful that man 
should lose it. If Adam had not lost it, would God act 
consistently in his moral government ? God must hate 
sin in Adam, as well as in an angel, because it is ever- 
more that abominable thing which he loatheth — that 
accursed thing which he hateth. And his declarations 
concerning sin are these, which are very awful, and must 
be universal, The tvages of sin is death ; and the soul 
that sinneth, it shall die. , The angels sinned, and, being 
spirits, had no earthly case, like ours, to become mortal ; 
but they underwent a spiritual death, and became dead^to 
God. All communion with God ceased ; the heavenly 
image was withdrawn, and the devilish nature introduced. 

Sin is just the same deadly bane to the spirit that poi- 
son is to the body : a single dose does the business. 
Angels lost their first estate by this poison of sin ; and if 
disobedience required a change of state in angels, it must 
require the same in man. For God acts uniformly in his 
moral government : he is Jehovah, and changeth not. 

Reasons may be found why God provides a remedy for 
fallen men, and not for fallen angels ; but no good reason 



82 SIN THE SAME BANE TO THE SPIRIT 

can be given why man should keep his first estate after sin 
committed. Man had a share of the devil's disobedience, 
and man must have a share of the devil's nature. And 
enough of this horrid nature is apparent in ourselves and 
others to confirm the argument. 

Some fancy that mortality makes the change of Adam's 
state ; but this is not the whole, nor the chief change ; 
it does not bring the devil's nature, and make us like him. 
Sickness, pain, and death, are only parts of the curse, 
which respect the body : the spirit also sinned, and the 
spirit is afflicted with the devil's nature. Hence Satan is 
styled the prince of this world, because he reigneth in 
the hearts of men. A devilish prince suits a devilish sub- 
ject — like loves its like. And the whole ivorld are said 
to lie in the wicked one, %v 7 5 tto^ow. 

It is not strange that some deny the fall. This is part 
of that spiritual blindness which has crept upon the under- 
standing, and is just what happens to delirious people in a 
fever, who fancy they are well, and mock at physic and 
physician. I make no doubt but the devils, through that 
pride which accompanieth sin, think as highly of them- 
selves as of the angels. And since they never can repent, 
they will rather charge their misery to the undeserved 
wrath of God than to their own iniquity. 

Every wicked temper that is found in a fiend I can find 
in myself, and discern in others. And I could as soon 
suppose that God created fiends, as believe that he created 
man in his present state. Before the fall, man was pro- 
nounced good — very good ; but after the fall he became 
bad indeed — bad enough to be called of God the deviVs 
child and the devil" s subject. Sure Beelzebub must grin 



WHICH POISON IS TO THE BODY. 83 

to hear his vanquished subjects preach of the dignity of 
human nature • and if such dignity is found in the subject, 
how much more in the prince ? He may well be honored, 
like the Turk, his cousin, with the title of sublime high- 
ness. 

Every dog that barks at me, and every horse that lifts 
his heel against me, proves I am a fallen creature. The 
brute creation durst not shew an enmity before the fall, 
nor had they any, but testified a willing homage unto 
Adam, by coming for a name. Eve no more dreads the 
serpent than we dread a fly. But, when man shook off 
allegiance from his God, the beasts, by divine permission, 
shook off allegiance too from man. 

Where sin enters, pride will enter too, and supply the 
place of real honor; and as iniquity aboundeth, pride 
aboundeth also. Else, how could sinners boast of dig- 
nity, and take up mighty state, on account of verbal titles, 
or of transient manors, when they themselves must pres- 
ently be eaten up with worms ? 

Thus, sir, by disobedience, Adam became both a con- 
demned sinner, and an unclean creature. He was dead 
in law by his trespass, and dead to God by his sinful na- 
ture ; dead both in trespasses and sins. The fountain 
being thus polluted, all its streams were filthy, For who 
can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean ? 
Not one. Hence all are called children of wrath by na- 
ture, and declared to be dead in sins. 

Some traces of the moral law remain, producing what 
we call the moral sense, or conscience ; and the lamp of 
reason burns, though with a dimmer light, yet sufficient 
to direct our worldly matters ; but the spiritual life is 



84 WHERE SIN ENTERS PRIDE WILL ENTER. 

quenched. We are born of the flesh — born with a car- 
nal mind which is at enmity with God ; and nothing suits 
us well but what is pleasing to the flesh. Spiritual ser- 
vice is a shackle put upon the mind, and when the heart 
is collared with devotion, it drudges through it very 
heavily, and is mighty froward in it ; stops short, starts 
back, flies out right and left, looks a hundred ways at 
once, and keeps lowing for the world all the time, just 
like the two Philistine cows, which drew the Lord's ark 
to Bethshemesh ; they were yoked fast together, and drew 
forward, but kept lowing for their calves all the while ; 
and though engaged in religious draught, both of them 
fell a sacrifice at Bethshemesh, were slaughtered, quar- 
tered, and consumed by fire. An awful type of the end 
of those who find God's worship not a pleasant service, but 
religious draught. 

Now, sir, all mankind abide in this state of death, 
Heathens, Jews, and Christians, till they are lorn of 
GW's Spirit, and have his Holy Spirit dwelling in 
them. And during their continuance in this state, they 
neither are, nor can be sensible of it, because it is a state 
of death, which seals up all perception. A dead soul 
knows no more of its dead condition than a dead body 
does. Men will mistake a decent worship, and a decent 
conduct for the spiritual life, and will suppose that glut- 
tons, drunkards, whoremongers, &c, are the only people 
in the state of flesh. Whereas, St. Jude calls every man 
a sensual man, who has not the Spirit. 

An experimental knowledge of the Holy Spirit's 
influence, was the Christian touchstone in St. Paul's day, 
but modern gospellers have learned a pleasant trick to 



A REAL CHRISTIAN A NEW CREATION. 85 

have the Holy Spirit, yet know nothing of it ; and they 
ask a true believer scornfully, as once a taunting prophet 
asked Micaiah, Which way went the Spirit of God from 
me, to speak to thee ? Did he pop upon you through 
the key-hole, or through a chink in the wall? Which 
way, Micaiah, was it ? and then smote him on the cheek. 
See here the character of a false prophet, deliniated by 
the Spirit of truth. He has not the Spirit of God, yet 
pretends unto it, by saying, Which way went the Spirit 
from me ? and he ridicules the Spirit's sensible operation, 
by asking scornfully, Which way went the Spirit unto 
thee ? Did you see him come, or feel him come into you, 
any way ? Pray, what way was it? Let us hear, Micaiah, 
and take this smite upon the cheek for your trouble. 
Such was the language of false prophets in old time ; and 
where Satan rules, these taunting prophets never die. 
But, sir, if you have never felt the spiritual death I am 
speaking of, you are yet a dead soul ; and will remain 
so, till Jesus Christ has quickened you. 

For as men cannot be sensible of this death, while they 
abide in it, so neither can they help themselves out of it. 
Death strips away all power, as well as all perception. * 
A dead body may as well restore itself to life as a dead 
soul. A fallen angel may as soon rekindle spiritual life 
and regain his first estate, as a fallen man. Nothing can 
produce the spiritual life and a spiritual mind resulting 
from it, but the Spirit of Grod. His breath alone brings 
this life, which Jesus intimates, when he breathed upon 
his disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 

Yet, while men are without this life, and walk the 
rounds of moral decency, they bravely talk of will and 



86 JESUS CHKIST THE SURETY 

power to make themselves the sons of God • and think 
St. John a mere driveling, for affirming they are born, 
not of the will of man, hut of God. 

A real Christian, in St. Paul's account, is a new crea- 
tion. He is Grod's workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus. And Jesus tells you how dead souls are quick- 
ened ; mark his words ; they come with double seal, to 
shew their weight and certainty. Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
hear shall live. Jesus is not speaking of the body's 
resurrection at the judgment-day, but a resurrection, 
which now is, and is coming every day — a resurrection 
of dead souls to life, not a merely moral, but a spiritual 
life ; and a resurrection caused, not by us, but by himself, 
even by his voice. He has many voices to call dead sin- 
ners by, the voice of his word, of his servants, and his 
providences ; but all these avail nothing, without the 
voice of his Spirit. His word is but a dead letter with- 
out the quickening Spirit : his servants are but barking 
dogs, who growl, yet cannot bite, unless he set them on ; 
and his providences are but claps of thunder, alarming 
for a time, yet quickly over, except he rides himself 
upon the storm. When he takes the work into his own 
hand, and the voice of his Spirit accompanies the voice 
of his word, or his servants, or his providences, then a 
sinner hears, and starts from his grave, like Lazarus, and 
lives. And having thus received life, he feels his con- 
demnation and his ruined nature, and crieth after Jesus. 

When the world was brought into this ruined state by 
sin, man could do nothing more to help himself than the 



OF THE BETTER COVENANT. 87 

fallen angels could, and must perish everlastingly, unless 
the Lord make bare his arm. He does, and provides 
another covenant ; the stores of which are not laid up in 
Adam, as before, nor in his ruined children. God does 
not choose to trust a bankrupt. If man could not 
stand upright, when set upon his legs, how shall he stand 
when he has none ? Therefore help is now laid upon 
one who is mighty and able to save to the uttermost. 
And the Saviour thus bespeaks the ruined sinner, Thou 
hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. 

However, though man fell, Grod was not disappointed 
by his fall ; it was foreseen : for, known to God are all 
his works from the beginning, and, being foreseen, it 
was provided against in such a manner as might exalt 
the riches of his grace in man's recovery. The first cov- 
enant was made with Adam, a mere man, who was the 
surety of it ; but the surety failed and ruined all. The 
second covenant was not made with the ruined sinner, a 
broken merchant, but with Jesus Christ, the Lord from 
heaven. Jehovah says, I give thee for a covenant, and 
of course, Jesus is the surety of this better covenant. 

Now the business of a surety is to pay the legal debts 
of another. Our legal debts are, first, perfect obedience, 
which alone can bring a title unto heaven ; secondly, the 
curse of death, for not performing that obedience. 

Jesus Christ first pays the debt of perfect obedience ; 
and thereby, as surety, redeems the heavenly title ; then 
he takes the law-curse on himself, to free believers from 
it. And both these blessings are imputed, or charged to 
the account of every true believer. By the death of his 
surety he is freed from condemnation ; and by his alone 



88 NO COMPOSITION 

ohedience he is made righteous, justified in the eye of 
the law, and obtains a legal title unto heaven. 

And, sir, there is nothing monstrous in this matter, 
however some may please to startle at it. Human laws 
every where, as well as the divine, allow of suretyship ; 
which proves it is an equitable thing. If farmer Thomas 
does some common work for farmer James, the law 
imputes the work done by Thomas unto James. When a 
curate preaches for a weary rector, the law imputes the 
curate's mouth to the silent rector. If you were over- 
whelmed with debts and friendly surety did discharge 
them all, the law would impute this payment unto you, 
and acquit you of debt as effectually, as if the money had 
been taken from your own purse, and paid with your own 
hand. 

Indeed, though suretyship is common among men in 
debts of money, it is not practiced in debts of life. For 
who will die for another ? A rogue will not thrust his 
neck into the halter for a rogue ; and an honest man 
would not choose it, nor might the state consent unto it ; 
for honest men are scarce. But the law itself has no 
abhorrence of such suretyship, and would gain abundant 
reverence by it. 

"When a villain dies by the hand of justice, we attend 
more to the guilt of the sufferer, and to our own security 
by his death, than to the honor which the law receives by 
his execution. But if an upright man, and well esteemed, 
should freely suffer for a villain, this striking spectacle 
would bring much reverence to the law, and give it great 
solemnity. 

Zaleucus, a prince of the Locrians, made a law, that 



FOR SINFUL DEBTS. 89 

every one convicted of adultery should lose both his eyes, 
and it happened that his own son was convicted of the 
crime. The prince was not willing that the law should 
lose its honor, nor could the father hear to see his son 
quite blind. He therefore orders one of his own eyes to 
be bored out, and one of his son's. Thus two eyes were 
given to the law, which brought it more solemnity than if 
the son had lost both his own. In such a case, as he 
passed along, many might have cried — "There goes the 
blind youth, who could not let his neighbor's wife alone." 
But when the aged father stirs abroad, and is seen with an 
eye dug out, this sight of suffering innocence strikes behold- 
ers' hearts with awe, and makes them reverence the law, 
and dread adultery. 

Pray, hold your hand a little, doctor, every honest man 
will strive to pay his debts, and if he cannot pay the 
whole, will make a composition, and pay what he can. 
Such a composition I would make for my sinful debts, and 
should hope to pay ten shillings in the pound, or a better 
penny. I am not so vain as to reject a surety altogether, 
relying wholly on my own ability for payment, nor can I 
think myself quite insolvent. I would therefore have the 
old grazier and Jesus Christ jointly bound in the same 
bond. This would look creditable, and I could conde- 
scend to let the Saviour sign his name first, though I paid 
full fifteen shillings in the pound. What think you of this, 
doctor ? * 

Sir, I think such a bond would dishonor Christ, and 
ruin you effectually. If you fancy God's authority is a 
trifling business, and does not need a surety to make 
whole satisfaction for sin, you would do well to consider 



90 chr'st's covenant 

what has happened to the fallen angels, for want of such a 
surety. They sinned ; and the trespass, which brought 
on their punishment, was a single one, no doubt, like 
Adam's. For, in God's government, The wages of every 
sin is death. Yet^their single trespass has cast them out 
of heaven, cursed them with a devilish nature, and doomed 
them to everlasting misery. 

You may thrust your name into the covenant, if you 
please, as a joint-bondsman, but it will be at your utter 
peril ; for the Father and the Son will both reject you 
with abhorrence. The Father has provided a surety for 
this better covenant — a sufficient surety, and named him 
singly, and thereby has excluded every other. And if 
you foist your own name into the covenant, as a joint- 
bondsman, to discharge your debts, what is this but reflect- 
ing on the wisdom of the Father, as if he knew not how to 
provide a surety ; and on the power of the Son, as if he 
was not able to execute his office ? Sir, this is horrible 
presumption, and will find a proper recompense at a 
proper time. God will avenge himself of such proud ad- 
versaries. 

Adam, though a mere man, was qualified, as a surety, 
to pay obedience for all in his loins ; yet none but a God- 
man is qualified to make atonement for disobedience. No 
created being can make any satisfaction unto God for sin ; 
the utmost he can do is to pay his hourly debts, and if the 
debts are hourly paid, he is still unprofitable, has no merit, 
nor deserveth even thanks ; he has only done his duty. 

You have read what Jesus says, and what he says is 
true of every* creature, angel or man: When ye have 
done all things which are commanded you, say, we are 



ADMITS OF NO JOINT BONDSMAN. 91 

unprofitable servants, we have only done our duty. And 
does the Lord then thank that servant, 10I10 has done the 
things that were commanded ! I suppose not. You do 
not thank your own servant for doing what he is com- 
manded, and yet are more obliged to him, a million times, 
than your Maker is to you. Now, sir, if after having 
done all our duty, we are yet unprofitable, and unworthy 
of the smallest thanks, pray, what room is left for merit 
to make atonement ? 

This saucy idol cannot show its face in heaven ; no an- 
gel dares to think of merit. With two wings he flies, to 
shew his swift obedience ; with two, his feet are covered, 
to hide obedience from his eyes ; and with two, his face 
is veiled, in token of unworthiness. Angels do not vaunt, 
as sinful mortals do, of their obedience and holiness ; but 
with adoring wonder cry, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
of hosts I and pay eternal adoration to this holy Three, 
the Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Merit is the fuz-ball, which sprouteth from a dunghill, 
with a powdered cap ; and only garnisheth the crest of 
sinners, who are daily doing what they ought not, or leav- 
ing undone what they ought to do. And if the real wages 
due to sin is death, then a sinner's merit, and a sinner's 
dignity, are just of as much value, and just as great a con- 
tradiction, as a traitor's loyalty. 

If Jesus Christ is a mere creature, though the head of 
all creation, and had paid most rigorous and sinless obedi- 
ence, he could only say at last, I have done my duty, and 
deserve no thanks ; I am yet unprofitable, and can plead 
no merit for myself, much less for others. 

But if Jesus Christ' is God, he is no more bound to 



92 CHRIST THE LAWGIVER. 

keep the creature's law than an earthly master is to do his 
servant's work. And if he pleased to take man's nature, 
to become man's surety ; though the human nature, being 
but a creature, and acting as a servant, could merit noth- 
ing, the divine nature, joined to it by a personal union, 
can merit, and make noble satisfaction. 

The law had claims of obedience upon the human nature 
of Christ, because it is a creature ; but had none upon the 
divine ; it is the Lawgiver, whose word created all things, 
and whose will gives law to all. Here merit will arise, 
by doing that service which it was not bound to do. 

If your servant does his daily work faithfully, no daily 
thanks are given nor expected ; he only does his duty. But 
if a neighbor lends a helping hand freely, he merits thanks, 
because the service was not due from him, but freely 
offered by him. We may merit from each other, but can 
merit nothing from the Lord, because our utmost service 
is ever due to him. 

Thus, by the obedience and death of this God-man 
surety, the law was magnified and honored — more hon- 
ored, than if all the sinful race of men had fallen under 
its eternal curse for disobedience . 

If man had paid a perfect unsinning obedience, it would 
have been his title to heaven — a title founded, not on 
human merit, but on the Lord's free promise, This do, 
and thou shalt live. Without such promise, God might 
have dropped his creature into nothing, after a thousand 
years of complete obedience. Yes, if no promise hindered, 
God might drop a perfect angel into nothing ; and per- 
haps with more justice than we may kill a happy fly, be- 
cause of his whizzing. Such an angel lives on courtesy 



the pope's infallibility. 93 

and has no reason to complain if it is withdrawn. While 
he pays obedience, his life abounds with comforts; all 
things suited to his state are given ; but he may drop into 
nothing, as he was before, if the Lord please th. God was 
under no obligation to give him life ; and without a prom- 
ise, he is under none to prolong his life ; and, least of all, 
to advance a human creature to a letter life. 

The Popish conclave has acted craftily, and more con- 
sistently than Protestant divines, by inventing works of 
supererogation. For though these works are false, ab- 
surd, and blasphemous, yet, being once allowed, they lay 
a right foundation for human merit. If a man can do 
more than he is in duty bound to do, he may merit by 
such doing. And nothing now is wanted for the Pope, 
but a Cyclop's eye of infallibility, which any Vulcan read- 
ily will make, to determine what these works of superero- 
gation are, and the church's coffers are loaded presently 
with treasure. Simeon Stylites, by perching on a pillar 
for a month, shall purchase pardons for a thousand 
sodomites. 

But, sir, we will take leave of the Pope's eye, and pro- 
ceed. Every man has sinned, and has lost his heavenly 
title. A single trespass forfeits it in man or angel, and 
forfeits it forever. Jesus Christ steps in, as the human 
surety, and pays the legal debt of perfect obedience, and 
thus redeems the sinner's title. Hence, he is called tlie 
Lord our righteousness. Jesus says himself Their 
righteousness is of me ; and the church replies, In the 
Lord have I righteousness. Paul says, Christ is made 
to, or rather for, us righteousness, and declares, We are 
made righteousness in him, which he calls the righteous- 



94 WORKS OP SUPEREROGATION. 

ness of God, because it was wrought out by the God-man 
surety. 

When John refused baptism unto Jesus, he received 
this answer, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes 
us to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus, as the holy one of 
Israel, needed not the laver of baptism ; but as Israel's 
surety, he did need it. It became him, as surety, to fulfil 
all righteousness, moral and ritual, respecting Jews and 
Christians. On this account he was both circumcised and 
baptized, partook of the Jewish passover and the Christian 
eucharist, and went to the yearly feasts at Jerusalem, as 
the law required. If a single rite had been neglected, he 
would not fulfil all righteousness, nor could have been a 
legal surety. A trip in one point would have spoiled 
all. 

But, sir, man has not only forfeited his heavenly title 
by sin, he has incurred a law-curse too, the curse of eter- 
nal death. Sin has both barred heaven's gate against him, 
and opened hell's gate for him. Now, Jesus Christ, as 
man's surety, paid this legal debt too. He was made a 
curse for us, and redeemed us from the curse. 

Paul is in rapture about this love of Christ ; and so is 
every one who feels the blessings purchased by it. Yet 
how little is this love regarded by modern gospellers ! 
Who bears a dying Saviour on his heart and thinks or 
talks about him ? A melancholy proof of man's fallen 
nature, of his deep ingratitude and folly. Sure, we must 
outmatch a devil here ! His heart would leap for joy to 
hear the tidings of a surety ; yet men will pass the surety 
by, some with no regard, and some with much contempt. 

Thus Jesus sets the fallen sinner on his legs again, pays 



MEETNESS FOR HEAVEN. 95 

the law-debt of complete obedience to redeem our title, 
then takes the law-curse on himself to free us from it. 

Why, doctor, this is charming news indeed ; but if this 
be all that is needful for salvation, I do not see how any 
can miscarry. Satan may as well bar up his gates, he will 
not catch a single straggler. My neighbor Fillpot, who 
comes reeling home at night from the tavern, stands as 
good a chance as the grazier, who goes soberly to bed. 
How is this, doctor ? Methinks I do not like it, that Ned 
Fillpot should stagger after me to heaven, and get per- 
haps as good a crown as myself. This will never do. 
Something surely must be wrought in us, as well as some- 
thing done for us. 

True, sir, much must be wrought in us, not indeed to 
purchase salvation, which is already purchased by the 
surety, but to dispose and enable us to receive salvation 
freely, and behave suitably for it. Jesus Christ has not 
only redeemed us from the curse, and bought our title, but 
has also purchased grace to sanctify our nature, and there- 
by give us meetness for glory. This grace is always given 
to the heirs of glory, to prepare them for it; and the bene- 
fits of Christ's obedience in life and death are made over 
to them, and sealed on the conscience by the Holy Spirit. 
Thus they have an inward witness of deliverance from the 
curse, with a legal title unto heaven, and a gospel-meetness 
for it. This meetness springs from regeneration, or a 
spiritual life begun and carried on in the soul, as a pre- 
paration for the spiritual worship of heaven. And the 
spiritual life differs from the merely moral one, as animal 
motion differs from mechanic motion, or as a man's walk- 
ing differs from a clock's going. The clock may go well, 



96 CHRIST THE DISPOSER 

but has not animal life ; and a man may walk well, yet 
have no spiritual life. 

Now, sir, observe the case of mere professors. They 
talk of honesty and decency, and feed upon their withered 
moral skeleton ; but know not how to eat the Jlesh and 
drink the Mood of Christ. An application of the gospel 
blessings to their heart is neither sought nor wanted. 
They hear that Jesus Christ has died, and are satisfied 
with this report; but his blood, the virtue of it. must be 
sprinkled on the conscience, or it avails them nothing, will 
bring them neither gospel-peace nor gospel-holiness. Paul 
and Peter speak of the sjirinkling of this Mood • and 
through this sprinkling, the atonement is received by a 
sinner, and his heart is sweetly drawn to love and follow 
Jesus. Nothing but partaking of Christ's blessing will 
effectually engage the heart to Christ. Then he draws us 
with the cords of a man, and the love of Christ con- 
strains us. 

All the blessings of salvation have been purchased by 
Jesus, and are at his disposal. He gives them when and 
where and how he pleases. And do not you expect, sir, 
to dispose of freely, what you have bought fairly ? Jesus 
saith, I give eternal life unto them ; and what is freer 
than a gift ? and lest you should think him a usurper, he 
declares, and pray observe his declaration, All things are 
delivered unto me by my Father. All persons, and all 
Messings, temporal and spiritual, are at my disposal, sur- 
rendered into my hands by the Father, on account of my 
undertaking the work of mediator. 

So Jesus reigneth, in his human nature, king supreme, 
disposing of all persons and all blessings, as he pleaseth : 



OF ALL BLESSINGS. 97 

and must reign, till all Ms foes are made his footstool. 
Then the kingdom will be administered as before, not by 
the hand of this God-man mediator, but God the three- 
one God, will be all in all. In the meantime, Jesus calls 
and quickens ivhom lie will, gives repentance and faith, 
bestows pardon and justification, affords grace to sanctify 
believers, and perseverance to bring them safe to glory. 
Thus the faithful say with David, Salvation is of the 
Lord ; and sing hosannahs, not to their own wisdom, 
strength, or merit, but to God and the Lamb forever. 

Indeed, doctor. I must cudgel you; I can hold no 
longer. My patience is worn down to its stump, and the 
stump is going. What a cypher you make of the poor 
grazier ; and what a hobby-horse cf human nature ! Ac- 
cording to your account, she has no more eyes, ears, or 
hands to help herself than an oyster. Why, your picture 
of nature is so horrid black, it would even fright a chimney- 
sweeper ! What ? have I no power in myself to begin the 
christian life, and, when begun, no strength to carry it on ? 
Am I in debt to Jesus Christ for everything ? 

Please to drop your cudgel, sir, and I will give an an- 
swer. A vaporing "staff does not suit my fancy. You 
are indebted unto Christ for every good you do possess, 
and to yourself for all the evil you commit. Jesus Christ 
is the author and finisher of every good thing in the spir- 
itual, rational, and animal life ; he is alpha and omega in 
them all. 

No animal has life till he gives it ; and no animal has 
power, when in life, to prolong its life a moment. It may 
eat and drink, yet food and liquor are not life, but means 
of life. We live not by bread alone, but by the Word of 



98 JESUS THE LIGHT OF MEN. 

God. That word which, bringeth food must give it bless- 
ing, and then it nourisheth. 

When Christ creates an idiot, all the schools in the 
world cannot give him reason, because he is born with- 
out it. 

And where a rational nature is given, and means used 
for its cultivation, still they are but means, which profit 
some, and help not others, though alike diligent. Every 
opening of the understanding, every improvement in sci- 
ence, and every invention in handicrafts, with all skill in 
working, come wholly from Jesus, who is called the light 
of men; and calls himself the light of the world. He 
opens a budding understanding as he opens a budding 
rose. 

Whatever light men have, it proceeds from Christ alone ; 
and he can give this light gradually, or give it all at once, 
as he did to Adam, and as he did to Bezaleel and Aho- 
liab, two brickmakers, who were furnished immediately 
with wisdom of heart, and skill of hand, for engraving, 
carving, embroidering, and all kind of work. 

Pie can make men forget their native language, and 
speak divers others, in^a moment, as he, did at Babel ; or 
he can make men retain their native language, and speak 
divers others, in a moment, as he did at Pentecost. 

Courage, too, proceeds from Jesus. When he would 
exalt a nation, five of them shall chase an hundred ; and 
when he would depress a nation, They shall fly, when 
none pursueth. 

Neither has a rational nature any power to preserve 
itself. A philosopher, engaged in study, and surrounded 
with literature, may turn an idiot, or fall distracted, in a 



THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 99 

moment ; and he would do so, if not supported secretly by 
Jesus; his visitation preserveth our spirit. 

Where the animal and rational natures are given, a man 
is yet void of life spiritual, till Jesus Christ bestows it)* 
as void of life spiritual, as an idiot is of life rational. And 
as none but Jesus could give an idiot rational life, so none 
but he can give a rational man spiritual life. 

This life was lost at the fall, and never is recovered, till 
Jesus quickens us. And till this life is recovered, men 
are only Christian ghosts, having semblance without sub- 
stance, resting on a broken bed of duties, and will find as 
much relief from it as a hungry stomach from a painted 
feast. 

Paul, I suppose, alludes to the spiritual life when writ- 
ing to a christian church, styled elsewhere spiritual men ; 
he prays that spirit, soul, and body may be preserved 
blameless, which three portions make up what he calls the 
6l6y.h]oov of a christian man, or the whole lot of nature 
assigned him by the Lord. 

When spiritual life is given, a man is said to be born 
of the Spirit, and finds divine communion through the 
Spirit ; but has no power in himself to preserve the life 
which is begun : no more power to continue or enlarge his 
spiritual life, than his rational or animal life. Means of 
grace must be used, but these are nothing more than 
means still. The support, increase, and continuance of 
the spiritual life are wholly from Jesus, in whom ive live 
and move and have our being. 

Why, doctor, you talk most amazingly of Jesus Christ. 
I never heard the like before. Some people only vamp 
him up as a prophet, and trample on his blood ; and some, 



100 ACCOUNT OF JESUS CHRIST 

who do not like to hear of hell, shew a Jewish heart, and 
call him an impostor ; but you make him God almighty, 
our Creator, and Preserver and Redeemer. Truly, I 
would give him all his due, but must have his honors 
fetched from the holy Bible, and not from human brains. 
My besom sweeps away all cobwebs, when spun by a spi- 
der or the doctor. Give me some fair and plain account 
of Jesus Christ from the Scriptures. I love the Bible 
and can credit what it says. 

Now you talk like a man, sir. When you lifted up 
your staff before, I began to think of packing up my alls. 
A cudgel is too hard an argument for me. But since you 
ask for the Bible. I am well content to stay, and tell you 
what it says of Jesus Christ. Before he had a human 
nature, he created all things by his divine power, all mat- 
ter, and all animals, and all spirits, human and angelic. 
St. John says, All things were made by him ; and Paul 
enlarges on St. John's words, saying, All things ivere 
created by him, that are in heaven and that are in earth, 
visible and invisible : all things were createdhyhim, and 
for him — that is, by his power, and for his glory. 
Where his Godhead is equally proclaimed by his creating 
power, and by creating all things for his glory. Now, sir, 
if Jesus Christ created all things, he cannot be a creature ; 
otherwise he must create himself, and so have had exist- 
ence, before he had a being. 

Paul goes on and says, Jesus Christ is before all 
tilings. Grammar rules required him to says, Jesus teas 
before all things ; but he breaks his well known grammar 
rules, and says, he is before all things, to shew his eternal 
unchangeable existence ; and Jesus did the very same, 
when he said, Before Abraham icas, I am. 



FROM THE BIBLE. 101 

Paul adds further, By him all things do consist. All 
things material, human, or angelic are held together, 
stand fast, and sustained by him. And again Jesus 
upholdeth all things by the word of his poiver. 

Paul sufficiently declares the divinity of Christ, by 
calling him the express image of the Father's person. 
As the impression of a seal on wax exactly answers to the 
seal itself, line for line, and is the express image of the 
seal, even so is the Son the express image of the Father. 
Whatever line of divinity is drawn on the Father, the 
same is impressed on the Son. Whatever wisdom, power, 
justice, truth, patience, kindness, mercy, &c, are found 
in the Father, the same must be found equally in the Son, 
else he is not the express image of the Father's person. 
If any attribute is in the Father which is not in the Son, 
or is possessed more perfectly by the Father than by the 
Son, then the Son is not the express image of the Father. 

Paul asserts that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt 
in Christ bodily ; that is, the divine nature of Jesus, 
containing all the fulness of the Godhead, dwelt in his 
body, and inhabited it as a temple, just as the Shekinah, 
or glorious presence of God, inhabited the holy of holies 
in the first Jerusalem temple ; which temple was a type 
of the body of Christ. 

Jesus saitb, All things whatsoever the Father hath 
are mine, do belong to me also. 

Again he saith, I and the Father are one, not one per- 
son, but one thing, one nature, one substance, one 
essence. 

He further affirms, No one hnoweth the Son but the 
Father, neither hnoweth any one the Father but the Son. 



102 the bible's account 

The divine understanding of the Son and the Father are 
equal and reciprocal — alike infinite in both. 

On these accounts, Jesus declares, Whoso hath seen 
me hath seen the Father. My divine nature expressly 
bears the essential image of the Father ; and as God- 
man, I am his manifestative image, a visible representa- 
tive of Jehovah, displaying his divine perfections in such 
a manner by my words and works, that whoso seeth me 
hath, in effect, seen the Father. Nothing more is found 
in him than in myself : ivhatsoever he p ) °ssesseth, I 
possess. 

The Father himself, speaking to the Son, saith, Thy 
throne, God, is for ever and ever. And could the 
Son speak to the Father in more lofty language. 

John calls him absolutely, God who made the world ; 
the true God ; and extols his love to mankind by saying, 
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid 
down his life for us. 

Paul says, He was God manifested in the flesh ; and 
affirms, that according to the flesh, cr his human nature, 
he sprung from the fathers of the Jewish nation ; but in 
his other nature, was God over all, blessed forever ; and 
ratifies the assertion by a solemn Amen. 

Thomas calls him my Lord and my God ; and is com- 
mended for his faith ; but others are commended more 
who should thus believe on him, though they have not 
seen him. 

Isaiah calls him, The mighty God ; a just God and a 
Saviour, who says, Look unto me, and be saved. 

Jude calls him the only wise God, our Saviour. And 
he is called the only wise God, not to exclude the Father 



OF JESUS CHRIST. 103 

and Spirit from an equal share of divinity, but to exclude 
every one who is not by nature God. So when Jesus 
saith, no one hioiveth the Father, hut the Son, he does 
not mean to exclude the Holy Ghost, who is by nature 
God ; for the Spirit searches all things, yea the deep 
things of God. And in this sense we say to Christ in 
our communion service, " Thou only art holy," not interr- 
ing to exclude the Father and the Spirit from this holi- 
ness, but every one who is not by nature God. 

Jehovah is the incommunicable name of the true God, 
denoting his everlasting permanent existence ; and God 
declareth this by calling himself, I am, which expresseth 
the meaning of Jehovah. Now the psalm'st affirms that 
the name Jehovah belongs to none but the true God, sav- 
ing, Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most 
high over all the earth; yet this name is given unto 
Christ in the Old Testament. I mention only one place 
out of many, This is his name whereby he shall be called 
the Lord (in the Hebrew, Jehovah) our righteousness. 

Jesus takes to himself the incommunicable name, say- 
ing, Before Abraham ivas, I con ; and thereby intimates 
to the Jews, that he was the very I am who spake to 
Moses at the bush; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, gave 
them his law at Sinai, and led them by his cloud, and fed 
them with his manna in the wilderness. 

Paul tells you that the God, the I am, who was tempted 
by the Israelites in the wilderness, was Christ ; neither 
let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and 
were destroyed by serpents. 

John ascribes eternal existence unto Christ, saying, 



104 CHRIST THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 

The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and slew 
unto you that eternal life which teas with the Father, and 
was manifested unto us. Well, sir, are you growing 
weary of this Scripture evidence ? 

No, no, doctor, you have me fast by the ears. I love 
Scripture much, but hate your logic, for I have suffered 
by it. Last Shrove-tide, I was riding to a market, and 
overtook a very spruce fellow, who quickly let me know he 
was a philosopher. I can, he said, dispute upon a broom- 
stick for half a day together. I can take any side of any 
question, and prove it first very right, and then mighty 
wrong. I can fix an ass so equally between two hay bun- 
dles, that though he is hungry, and placed within due 
reach of both, he shall taste of neither. I offered to lay 
him half a crown, that the ass would fairly eat both the 
bundles, if convenient time was granted. No, he replied, 
the ass will not ; and I shall prove that he cannot. Nay, 
then, said I, it is no common ass, if he will not eat good 
hay ; it must be some human ass like yourself, sir ; and 
so I jogged on and left him. Indeed, these broomstick 
disputers had almost choused me out of Christ's divinity. 
Go on, doctor, I am not weary, but am all attention. 

Sir, I obey your orders cheerfully ; it is a favorite sub- 
ject, and concerns me much. If Jesus Christ is not truly 
God, he cannot save me. No atonement can be made by 
his death. Neither need he come from heaven, merely as 
a prophet, to instruct me. He might have taught me just 
the same things by the mouth of Paul or Peter, as by his 
own mouth ; and they might have confirmed the truth by 
their death, as well as himself. But they could make no 
atonement on a cross for sin. None but a real God-man 
can do this. And now, sir, I proceed. 



CHRIST THE OBJECT OF PRAYER. 105 

God claims divine worship as due only to himself. 
Thou shalt io or ship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shall thou serve. And Paul makes idolatry to consist in 
paying service or worship to them that are not gods by 
nature. If, therefore. Jesus Christ is not God by nature, 
he ought not to be worshipped. Yet when the Father 
brought his Son into the world, he said, Let all the angels 
of God worship him. And that multitude of heavenly 
host, which brought the shepherds tidings of a Saviour, 
no doubt did worship him accordingly. 

Many patients that came to Jesus for a cure did wor- 
ship him, and without a reprimand for so doing. 

All his disciples worshipped him very solemnly at his 
ascension. 

All angels and glorified saints pay him loorship in 
heaven, saying, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to 
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
and honor, and glory, and blessing ! What a number 
of words are heaped together, in order to express the high- 
est worship and the deepest adoration ! Yet lofty men 
cannot submit to worship Jesus, though the angels do it 
cheerfully. 

Again — Every creature ( in heaven, on earth, and 
under the earth, say, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
power, be to him that sittest on the throne, and to the 
Lamb, for ever and ever. Every creature is here repre- 
sented as paying, and every creature will at length be 
forced to pay, this homage and worship equally to the 
Father and the Lamb ; which yet never would be paid, 
unless Christ was truly God. For thus the Lord declares, 
I am Jthovah, that is my name ; and my glory will I not 



106 CHRIST THE HEARER 

give to another, that is, to any other who is not Jehovah. 
But Jesus Christ's name is Jehovah too, and therefore he 
shares equal glory with the Father. 

Jesus, as Jehovah, is the object of prayer. The apos- 
tles say, Lord, increase our faith. 

All petitioners who applied to Christ for help, presented 
their prayer to him, and expected help wholly from him, 
excepting Martha, who is gently reproved for not doing 
so. Martha says, Ihnow that whatsoever thou wilt ask 
of God, he will give it thee. Jesus tells her, I am the 
resurrection and the life : he that helieveth on me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live. You talk of God's giving 
me whatsoever I ask ; but know assuredly, that I have 
life in myself, and raise a soul or body unto life, when I 
please. 

Stephen says, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ; 
and commends his departing soul, as true believers do, 
into the hand of Jesus. And who, but Jehovah, is worthy 
of, and sufficient for, such a trust ? 

Paul, in a prayer, puts the Son's name before the 
Father's — May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and 
God, even our Father, comfort your hearts, and stablish 
you in every good word and work. 

In the New Testament, Christians are thus described, 
They call upon the name of Jesus Christ. This was an 
outward distinguishing mark of Christians in the apostle's 
day, but some lewd professors in our day esteem it the 
brand of idolaters. 

It is the Father's will, that all should honor the Son, 
even as they honor the Father; should pay the same 
adoration and worship to the Son, in his human nature, as 



AND ANSWERER OF PRAYER. 107 

they pay it to the Eather. The human nature, taken by 
the Son, vailed his divinity ; and might seem a bar 
against divine "worship. Therefore a command is given, 
first, that all the angels should worship him at his incarna- 
tion ; and then, that all men should honor the Son, even 
as they honor the Father. The union of the two natures 
shall be no bar against divine worship. And every one 
who withhold eth this honor from the Son, does withhold it 
from the Father, and dishonor him. For he that honor- 
eth not the Son, honoreih not the Father, who hath sent 
him. 

When you direct a prayer unto Jesus, you need no one 
to introduce you, but may go directly to him now, as they 
did aforetime when he was on earth. As man, he receives 
the addresses of men ; and as God, he is worthy of them, 
and abundantly able to supply all wants. But when you 
pray to the Father or the Holy Spirit, that is, to the God- 
head absolutely, then you must go through the Mediator, 
as the only ground of your acceptance. 

We are baptized equally into the name of the Father and 
the Son, and thereby make equal profession of faith, wor- 
ship, and obedience to them both. But if Jesus Christ is 
not Jehovah, raise him up as high as the shoulder of an 
Arian can lift him, he is still much more beneath the 
Father than a worm is beneath himself. For there is no 
proportion between finite and infinite. Therefore if Jesus 
Christ is not Jehovah, to couple him with the Father in 
the same baptismal dedication, is a thousand times more 
unseemly than to harness a snail and an elephant together. 
And what is said of the Son in this article, equally respects 
the Holy Ghost. 



108 CHRIST THE JUDGE. 

Jesus Christ is appointed the judge of quick and dead ; 
but how can he execute the office unless he is Jehovah \ 
His eye must survey every moment all the actions, words, 
and thoughts that are passing everywhere throughout the 
earth; and his memory must retain distinctly all the 
amazing number of actions, words, and thoughts, that will 
have passed from the world's creation till its dissolution. 
If but a single wickedness, committed in a sinner's bosom, 
escapes him ; or but a single cup of cold water, given 
unto any in the name of a disciple, is forgotten; he can- 
not judge right judgment. Now, if you think a creature's 
comprehension can survey and retain all these things — 
and modern faith, though straining out a Bible-gnat, will 
swallow down a hundred camels — still I ask, how can 
Jesus know the hearts of men, unless he is Jehovah ? 
This prerogative. belongs to God alone. 

Solomon prays in this manner, Jehovah, God of Israel, 
thou, even thou only, hiowest the hearts of cdl the chil- 
dren of men. And Jehovah says of himself, I search the 
heart, and try the reins. 

Now Jesus does the same; therefore he is Jehovah, 
and qualified to be a judge. He shewed, while on earth, 
that he knew what ivas in man ; he knew their thoughts ; 
disclosed the inward reasonings of their hearts ; and de- 
clares concerning himself, that all the churches shall know 
that I am he who search the reins and hearts ; and 
being able to do this, he is qualified for judge, and there- 
fore adds, I will give to every one of you, according to 
your works. 

The divinity of Christ proved a sad bone of contention 
among the Jews, who judged of him from his mean ap- 






ONE WITH THE FATHEE. 109 

pearance, and not from his godlike works and words. At 
one time he tells them, I and my Father are one. The 
Jews understood his meaning well, and cried out, We stone 
thee for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man, 
makest thyself God. 

At another time he says, My Father ivorketh hitherto, 
and I work. I work with uncontrolled power, as my 
Father works ; and all things obey me and my Father 
equally. Hereupon the Jews sought to kill him, because 
he had said that God was his Father Q'diov Ttarega,') his 
own proper or peculiar Father) , making himself thereby 
equal with God. The Jews knew, though some among 
ourselves do not, what Jesus meant by calling God his 
own proper Father. They perceived by this expression, 
that he made himself so partake of his Father's divine 
nature, as an earthly son partakes of his father's human 
nature, which is the same in both ; and that Jesus hereby 
would distinguish himself both from angels, who are cre- 
ated sons of God, and from believers, who are adopted 
sons ; and for this expression, which seemed presumptu- 
ous and blasphemous, they sought to kill him. 

On another occasion, Jesus took the incommunicable 
name to himself, saying, before Abraham was, I am ; 
and this so enraged the Jews, that they took up stones to 
cast at him. Now stoning was the legal punishment for 
blasphemy. 

When Jesus is accused of blasphemy for making him- 
self God, he never does refute the charge, but either vin- 
dicates his high claim in a covert way, which was needful 
then, that his death might not be hastened ; or he passeth 
over the charge in silence. And is silence, in such a 



110 JESUS THE " I AM," 

weighty matter, consistent with the character of Jesus? 
If he had not been Jehovah, surely it behoves him, when 
called a blasphemer, to tell them plainly, ' ' You mistake 
my words, I am not God, nor meant to call myself so." 

This charge of blasphemy pursued Jesus through his 
ministry, and at length nailed him to the cross. At his 
trial, he is first brought before the Jewish council, where 
some frivolous things are urged, but nothing proved. 
Then Caiaphas stands up, and says, Art thou the Son of 
the Messed ? Christ's appointed hour was now come, and 
his answer is no longer covert ; Jesus saith, I am. The 
high-priest, knowing well the meaning of his words, rends 
his clothes, and says, What ?ieed have ive of further ivit- 
nesses. Ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye f 
And they all condemned him to he guilty of death. 

Next he is hurried before the bar of Pilate, to have 
their sentence confirmed. Here, again, some idle mat- 
ters are first urged, but not regarded by the governor. 
Jesus is accused of aspiring to be king, but satisfies 
Pilate by declaring, his kingdom is not of this world. 
At length the capital charge of blasphemy is brought, 
which finished the trial. We have a law, say the Jews, 
and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself 
the Son of God. Pilate, hearing this, was much afraid ; 
and going to the judgment-hall again, says to Jesus, 
Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. 
Pilate saith, Speakest thou not unto me ? Knowest thou 
not that I have power to crucify thee, and power to 
release thee ? Jesus answered, Thou coiddest have no 
power at all against me, except it were given thee from 
above : therefore he that delivered me unto thee, hath the 



THE JEHOVAH. Ill 

greater sin. This answer somewhat checked Pilate, but 
an outcry from the Jews quickens him, and he passeth 
sentence. 

Thus both at the bar of Caiaphas and Pilate, the capi- 
tal charge brought against Jesus was blasphemy, or the 
calling himself in a peculiar sense the Son of God, and 
thereby making himself equal with God. For this he 
was condemned to die ; and he suffered death as a blas- 
phemer for laying claim to divinity. And were he now 
in Britain, a multitude of those who are fed at his altar 
would lift a heel against him, and hail him to a gibbet, 
and cry out as before, If thou he the Son of God, come 
down from thy gallows, and ice will believe that thou art 
the proper Son of God — neither an adopted Son, nor a 
created Son, but the only begotten Son of the Father. 

Perhaps they might go further — so great is their zeal 
— and having crucified the Saviour on a false charge of 
blasphemy, might crucify his followers on a base pretence 
of idolatry. A minute philosopher has dared to publish 
muttering words about it ; one who likes to live upon the 
alms arising from the Lord's service, andean say genteelly, 
Hail, Master, and betray the Master's honor as a friend 
of old did. 

When Jesus says, the Father is greater than he, and 
the Son is ignorant of the day of judgment, these things 
must be ascribed to his human nature. As touching his 
Godhead, he is equal to the Father, being declared to be 
one with the Father, one in nature, and bearing his express 
image; but as touching his manhood, is inferior to the 
Father : and his human nature, we are told grew in ivis- 
dom and stature, which supposeth a finite boundary. 



112 JESUS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON 

And though at last the kingdom of Christ will be deliv- 
ered up to the Father, this must be understood of his 
mediatorial kingdom. All things are administered at 
present by the hand of Jesus, as God-man mediator ; but 
when this dispensation ends, the kingdom will return to 
its original order ; and, when thus returned, it is not said 
the Father will be all in all, but God (the triune God) 
will be all in all. 

That the Son will not lose his essential kingdom as 
God, when his mediatorial kingdom as God-man ceaseth, 
seems plain from these words of the Father to the Son — 
Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever ; which words 
ascribe an everlasting dominion to the Son, when his 
mediatorial kingdom is no more. 

Thus, Sir, I have given you a summary proof of Christ's 
divinity from the Bible ; and can you suppose that the 
Scripture would tell you plainly, again and • again, that 
Jesus Christ is Jehovah — is God — the trite Go$ — the 
mighty God — the just God — and God over all, blessed 
for evermore, if he was not truly God ? All these lofty 
expressions are applied to Jesus Christ, and they would 
naturally mislead plain men, yea, and would confound all 
plain language, if he is not truly God. A man must 
have the old serpent's subtlety, and chop and mince his 
logic mighty fine, who can banish Christ's divinity out of 
these expressions. But what, then, must become of the 
poor, who are the chief subjects of the gospel-kingdom ? 
They cannot buy the spawn of subtle brains, nor, if pur- 
chased, could digest it. They .have nothing but the Bible, 
and if Jesus is not truly God, the Bible would mislead 
them ; and so, for want of a scribe's cap and dictionary, 
they must all miscarry truly. 



OP THE FATHER. 113 

You have heard before, that the wise are taken in 

their own craftiness; and now, sir, hear how the Lord 
takes them. Gins and snares are scattered in his word to 
catch a subtle scribe, just as traps are laid by us to catcli 
a fox ot foulmart. Every fundamental doctrine meets 
with something which seems directly to oppose it ; and 
these seeming contradictions are the traps whicli are laid. 
A lofty scribe, who depends upon his own subtlety, and 
cannot pray sincerely for direction, is sure to be taken in 
these snares ; but a humble praying soul escapes them, 
or, if his foot be caught, the snare is broken, and his 
soul delivered. 

Some things spoken of the human nature of Christ, 
and of his mediatorial character and office, are the traps 
laid about his divinity to catch a modern scribe ; as the 
meanness of Christ's appearance in Judea was a trap to 
catch an ancient rabbi. 

Isaiah has an awful word about these traps which are 
laid around the Saviour's person. He (Jesus) shall be 
for a sanctuary (unto some), but for a stone of stum- 
bling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel ; 
for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem. And they were taken in the snare, for they cruci- 
fied the Lord of glory as a vile blasphemer. 

No one has cause to complain of these traps, because 
the Holy Spirit's guidance is promised to all them that 
seek it earnestly ; and if men are too lazy or too lofty to 
seek this assistance, they are justly suffered to stumble, 
and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. 

But, sir, if you would take a modern rabbi for your 
tutor, and seat yourself beneath bis feet, and catch the 

H 



114 JESUS A STUMBLING STONE 

droppings of his mouth, whither, whither must you fly for 
shelter ? Alas ! the modern scribes are just in such a 
hobble now about Jesus, as the Jewish scribes were. 
Some said then, he is John the baptist ; others said, No ; 
he is Elias ; and others contradicted both, and called him 
Jeremias, or one of the prophets. So it was then ; and 
so it is now. Some say, he is a mere man, as the Turks 
say ; and such professors only need a pair of whiskers, to 
pass for Mussulmen. Others say, he has an angeVs 
nature, but is head and shoulders taller than the highest 
angel ; others contradict them both, and say, he is a God ; 
but having lost a small article in St. John's Greek gospel, 
lie is not the God. Others laugh at this, and say, he is 
no God at all, but hoisted into Godship by his office ; and 
must be worshipped in a lower strain, as wily courtiers 
worship princes, as starving Levites worship patrons, as 
antiquarians worship rust, or as Christian men will worship 
mammon. 

Again, whilst some affirm he is not truly God, others 
have affirmed he was not truly man, or had no real human 
nature ; and so amongst them all they have stripped him 
worse than the Roman soldiers did, who took his clothes, 
yet left his carcass ; but these rogues have run away with 
every thing. According to their various fancies, he is 
neither God. nor angel, nor man ; and what else they can 
make him, I see not, unless it be a devil, as the Jewish 
scribes made him. 

Thus Jesus proves a sad ston-e of stumbling to the lofty 
scribes who flounder round about him, and bedaub him 
grievously, but cannot get up to him ; and as every scribe I 
grows sharper than his brother, some new nature is invented 



AND ROCK OF OFFENCE. 115 

for the Saviour. And, sir, if you renounce the plain 
account of the Bible, you will find as many caps for 
Christ's head, as there are fancies in a scribe's brain. 

If Jesus Christ is not truly God, all his apostles, 
excepting Judas, were idolaters ; for they ivorshipped him 
with great solemnity at his ascension. Also all the 
Christians of the first and purest age were idolaters ; for 
we learn from undoubted heathen records, that they prayed 
and sang praises to one Jesus, according to the character 
given them by Paul, They call upon the name of Jesus 
Christ our Lord in every place. Yea, and all the angels 
too, except the devils, are highly guilty of idolatry ; for 
they sing delightful praises unto God and the Lamb. 
Which adoration puts the devils, who are utter haters of 
idolatry, in a cruel rage at the book of Revelations, where 
this worship is recorded, and makes them raise up human 
tools to vilify the book, and try to banish it from the 
sacred canon. 

Enough, enough, doctor; put no more sheaves upon 
the cart, lest you break it down. An overstocked market 
oversets it commonly ; and a drove of lean proofs coming 
after the other, may prove like Pharaoh's second drove of 
lean oxen, which devoured all the fat ones. I would 
have no more than just enough — cramming only breeds 
a surfeit. And I have heard enough to satisfy me that 
Jesus is my Maker and Preserver — the God in whom I 
live, and move, and have my being — who deserves my 
highest worship and my best obedience. And it seems 
agreeable to common sense, that none can redeem a world 
but the Maker of it. Yet I am still in the dark about 
your new covenant. How does it differ from the old ; 



116 THE NEW COVENANT 

and how must I get a slice of the new ? Nature, you 
say, cannot carve for herself; who, then, must do this 
office for her, and put the meat upon her trencher ? 

An answer to both your questions will occasion some 
little repetition, sir, yet not a needless one, since it 
respects the way to life, which is too commonly mistaken. 

In a covenant of works, a man must work for life by 
his oivn will and power, or by the natural abilities he is 
endowed with. He stands upon his own legs, and had 
need look well to them ; for the tenor of this covenant is, 
Do, and live ; transgress, and die. A single trip ruins 
all ; as in angels, so in Adam j but if the whole is kept 
without a flaw, a right to life is purchased by virtue of the 
covenant promise. 

In the covenant of grace, all things are purchased for 
us, and bestoived upon us, graciously or freely. 

These two covenants are called the old and new ; 
no more are noticed in Scripture ; and a suitable law 
respecting both is mentioned — the law of works, and 
the laiv of faith. All other laws are cobwebs of a 
human brain — such as the law of sincere obedience, the 
law of love, &c. For love and obedience are the fruits 
of faith, and not the law of the new covenant. 

And now, sir, God himself shall tell you by the mouth 
of Jeremiah what the new covenant is. Behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant 
with the house of Israel, not like that I made at Sinai ; 
but this shall be the covenant, I will put my law in their 
inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; I will be 
their God, and they shall be my people ; I will forgive 
their iniquities, and remember their sins no more. 






A COVENANT OF GRACE. 117 

Ezekiel describes this covenant more minutely — I will 
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall he clean ; I 
vjill cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your 
idols ; I will give you a new heart, and 1 will put a new 
spirit in you ; Iivill take the stony heart out of your flesh, 
and I will give you an heart of flesh ; I will put ray 
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. 

The neiu covenant is here shown to consist of a rich 
and gracious bundle of free promises, in which I will and 
I will runs through the whole. God does not say, " Make 
yourselves obedient, and then I will sprinkle clean water 
upon you, to wash away guilt ;" but he says, " I ivill do 
both ; I will pardon you, and make you obedient also ; 
yea, / will do everything, and do it by my Spirit. Not 
your own might, but my Spirit shall sanctify your heart, 
and engage your feet to walk in my statutes." 

This covenant is too glorious for nature to behold. She 
shrinks from the dazzling sight ; fears woful consequences 
from it ; and, trembling for morality, beseeches the vicar 
to marry Moses unto Jesus, and couple the two covenants. 
From this adulterous alliance springs the spurious cove- 
nant of faith and works, with a spruce new set of duties, 
half a yard long, called legally-evangelical, or evangeli- 
cally-legal ; unknown to Christ and his apostles, but dis- 
covered lately by some ingenious gentlemen. 

However, Jesus does not thank old nature for her fears. 
He has promised in his covenant to provide a new heart, 
and good feet, as well as justification and pardon ; and 
what he promiseth he will perform. Jesus does not want 
the staff of Moses ; nor will the master of the house suffer 
an alliance with his servant. 



118 PARTAKERS OF THE NEW COVENANT. 

And so much, sir, for the nature of the new covenant. 
Your next question was — How do we become partakers 
of it ? Now the blessings of this covenant were all pur- 
chased by Jesus, and are lodged in his hand to dispose of ; 
free pardons to bless a guilty sinner, free grace to sanc- 
tify his nature, with full power to lead him safe to Canaan. 
Jesus therefore says, Look to me and be saved ; Come to 
me and I will give you rest. But the bare command and 
invitation of his Word will not bring us to him. 

Nature lost her legs in paradise, and has not found 
them since ; nor has she any will to come to Jesus. The 
way is steep and narrow, full of self-denials, crowded up 
with stumbling-blocks. She cannot like it ; and, when 
she does come, it is with huge complaining. Moses is 
obliged to flog her tightly, and make her heart ache, be- 
fore she will cast a weeping look on Jesus. Once she 
doated on this Jewish lawgiver, was fairly wedded to him, 
and sought to please him by her icorJcs, and he seemed a 
kindly husband ; but now he grows so fierce a tyrant, 
there is no bearing of him. When she takes a wry step, 
his mouth is always full of cursing ; and his resentments 
are so implacable, no weeping will appease him, nor pro- 
mise of amendment. 

Why, doctor, you are got into your altitudes — I do 
not understand you. Figures are above my match ; I 
never could get through arithmetic. Pray, let us have 
plain English. 

So you shall, sir. Man is born under the law of works, 
and of course is wedded to that law ; it is the law of his 
nature. Traces of the moral law are still upon his heart ; 
the fall has blotted the two tables, but not defaced them 



SINAI BREAKS THE LEGAL HEART. 119 

wholly. Where revelation is bestowed, the tables are re- 
newed as at Sinai ; but only wrote as yet in stone, not on 
the heart. By means of the moral sense and revelation, 
men acquire some notion of a covenant of works. This 
covenant suits their nature, and is understood in a mea- 
sure, though neither in its full extent, nor in its awful 
penalties. Jesus begins his lectures with the law of 
Works, somewhat known to the scholar, and urges that 
law on his conscience with vigor, to drive him to the law 
of faith. The young Israelite is called to Mount Sinai, 
where Jesus trains his people now, as he did aforetime. 
And till the heart has had a thorough schooling here, has 
heard and felt the thunders of the law, it will be hard and 
stony. It may be pitiful to others, but wants compassion 
for itself; may weep at a neighbor's ruin, but cannot 
truly feel for its own. The bosom is so bound about with 
wrappers of obedience, that when the curses of the law 
are heard, they only tingle in the ear, and graze upon the 
breast, but do not pierce the conscience. The man know- 
eth not his real danger ; the law of works refreshes him ; 
and while he sippeth comfort from his faint obedience, 
Jesus Christ is only used as a make-weight — like the 
small dust thrown in a scale to turn the balance. 

Now Sinai breaks the legal heart, and takes the stone 
away. Here the heart of flesh is given; Jesus, by his 
Spirit, sets the law home upon the sinner's conscience ; 
then he feels that the curses in the law are his proper por- 
tion — not because he is the chief of sinners, but because 
he is a sinner. Thus his bosom is unswaddled, the heart 
begins to bleed, the mouth is stopped quite, all legal wor- 
thiness is gone, he stands condemned by the law, and all 



120 FEEE SALVATION NEEDFUL. 

his hope is fixed on Jesus. While the law was written 
only upon paper, he found no galling condemnation. His 
heart, like the stony tables, received the letter, and felt 
no impression ; but when the commandment reached his 
inmost soul, then he died. This makes a free salvation 
highly needful, a whol-e Saviour truly precious, and &pure 
covenant of grace delightful. And now the scholar comes 
to Jesus Christ with cap in hand, and bended knee, and 
bleeding heart, and with Peter's prayer, Lord, save, or I 
perish. 

Being thus convinced of sin, his heart can have no rest 
till he receives a pardon, and finds that peace of Grod 
which passeth understanding. He feels a real condem- 
nation, and must have absolution, not from man, but God. 
Once he prayed for pardon, and rose up from his knees 
contentedly without it. His heart was whole, he did not 
want a pardon ; nay, it seemed a presumption to expect it. 
Yet sure, what we may ash without presumption, we may 
expect without presumption. But now the scholar sees 
his legal title unto heaven is lost, and finds a legal con- 
demnation in his breast besides, which makes him hasten 
to the surety, and call upon him, as the Lamb of God 
who takes away our sins, and as the Lord our righteous- 
ness. He views the surety, as his law-fulfiller, both as 
his legal title, and his legal sacrifice ; and he wants an 
application of these blessings to his heart — an application 
by the Holy Spirit, to witness they are placed to his 
account. 

He sees a need that both the legal title and the legal 
sacrifice should be imputed to answer all the law's demands. 
And he marvels much that any who allow the imputation 



HUNGERING FOR HOLINESS. 121 

of Christ's death should yet object to the imputation of his 
life. Since, if the obedience of Christ's death may be 
imputed, or placed to our account, for pardon, why may 
not the obedience of his life be imputed also for justifica- 
tion, or a title unto glory ? One is fully as easy to con- 
ceive of as the other. Both are purchased by the surety; 
both are - wanted to discharge our legal debts; and both 
will be embraced and sought with eagerness, when our 
debts and wants are truly known. But here the matter 
sticks : men do not feel their wants, and so reject imputed 
righteousness. The heart must be broken down, and 
humbled well, before it can submit to this righteousness. 
Till we see ourselves utter bankrupts, we shall go about 
to establish our own righteousness, and cannot rest upon 
the surety's obedience, the God-man's righteousness, as 
our legal title unto glory. 

But, sir, this is not all. Every one who is born of God 
is made to hunger for implanted holiness, as well as thirst 
for imputed righteousness. They want a meetness for 
glory, as well as title to it ; and know they could not bear 
to live with God, unless renewed in his image. Heaven 
would not suit them without holiness, nor could they see 
the face of God without it. And having felt the guilt of 
sin, and the plague of their sinful nature, by conviction 
from the Holy Spirit, this has taught them both to dread 
sin and loathe it — to loathe it for its vile uncleanness, and 
dread it for the curse it brings. They consider sin as 
bringing both the devil's nature and the devil's hell. 
They view it and detest it, as the poison of the moral 
world, the filthiness of a spirit, the loathing of a Holy God, 
and such a cursed abomination, as nothing but the blood 
of Christ could purge away. 



122 IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

And, sir, where imputed righteousness is not only 
credited as a gospel doctrine, but received by the Holy 
Spirit's application, it produces love to Jesus — tender 
love, with gratitude. And this divine love not only 
makes us willing to obey him, but makes us like him : for 
God is love. 

Christian holiness, springing from the application of 
imputed righteousness, is a glorious work indeed — far ex- 
ceeding moral decency, its thin shadow, and its dusky 
image. It is a true devotedness of heart to God, a seek- 
ing of his glory, walking in his fear and love, rejoicing in 
him as a reconciled Father, and delighted with his service, 
as the only freedom. 

Full provision is made for this holiness in the new cov- 
enant ; and Jesus, the noble king of Israel, bestows it on 
his subjects. Let me repeat his words, I will give anew 
heart, and put my Spirit within you, and cause you to 
walk in my statutes. Believers look to him with pray el- 
and faith ; by looking are transformed, into his image ; 
and taste the blessed fruits of Canaan before they pass the 
banks of Jordan. 

But, sir, the holiest Christian can put no trust in his 
holiness. His daily seeking to grow in grace, proves his 
holiness defective. Tekel is written on every duty, Thou 
art weighed in the balance and found wanting . And he 
knows the meaning of those weighty words, applicable both 
to soul and body — Verily, every man at his best estate, 
is altogether vanity. His utmost holiness and freest ser- 
vices do not answer the demand of God's law ; and if de- 
pended on for justification in any measure, would bring 
him under the law's penalty, and condemn him. He is 



THE HUMAN HEART FULL OF WILES. 123 

therefore forced to fly out of himself entirely, and seek a 
refuge only in Christ. 

Nay, doctor, you must not take your gloves out yet, nor 
handle your staff, as if preparing for a march. I have a 
bag of foxes by my side, which must be let out, one by 
one, before we part. If you can hunt them down, it will 
be well ; if not, they may spoil your sheepfold, and worry 
all your doctrine. 

Sir, I am sick of foxes. My father gave me one, and 
I am bound to keep him during life. Every day I smell 
him, and scarce know how to keep him chained in his 
kennel, he is so crafty. His kennel and your bag, I sup- 
pose, are just the same, nothing but a human breast. 
And sure no fox is half so full of wiles, as the human 
heart. 

Well, but doctor, I must open my bag. Pray, take a 
peep on this young cub, and listen to his chatter. 
" Faith !" he cries, "what is faith? Every simpleton 
who has learnt his creed may believe, though he cannot 
reckon twenty. Pooh ! I would not give a straw for all 
the faith of all your ancient and your modern saints — not 
I ; give me a budget of good works. Faith ! what can 
faith do ? A poor empty thing without a grain of merit. 
The other night I waited on friend Sarle, your honest 
neighbor, and supped in his henroost, amidst a deal of 
cackling music. When I marched off, a straggling goose 
was hard at hand, and I was much inclined to ask her to 
my lodging ; for company is pleasant, and the night was 
dark : but my stomach being crammed with poultry, and 
a barking dog appearing, I let the waddling dame go off 
quietly. This noble act of mercy, such as Christians often 



124 THE POLE TO A DROWNING MAN, 

shew, must justify me more than a thousand of your pit- 
eous acts of faith." You hear doctor, how he chatters. 

Yes, sir, so I could chatter once ; and we are apt to 
undervalue what we do not understand. But all posses- 
sors of divine faith esteem it highly, and call it, as St. 
Peter does, precious faith. It brings a precious view 
of Christ, and draweth precious blessings from him. It 
is a grace which quarrels much with human pride, and 
makes its only boast of Jesus ; and is not meant to be 
our justifying righteousness, else it might learn to boast 
too. Faith says, In the Lord have I righteousness ; and 
tells a sinner, il I cannot save thee : " Thou art saved by 
grace through faith. The grace of Jesus brings salva- 
tion ; and through faith, as an instrument put in the 
sinner's hand, he is enabled to reach the grace. ; just as a 
beggar, by his empty cap stretched forth, receives an 
alms. 

A pole held to a drowning man, and by which he is 
drawn to land, saveth him, just as faith saves a sinner. 
In a lax way of speaking, we are said to be saved by 
faith ; and so the drowning man might say he was saved 
by the pole, though in truth he was rescued by the mercy 
of a neighbor, who thrust a pole towards him, and thereby 
drew him safe on shore. 

Faith could have no room in a covenant of grace, if it 
had any justifying righteousness of its own. For desert 
on man's part is not consistent with such a covenant : 
Else grace is no longer grace. 

If any personal or relative duty, such as temperance or 
charity, had been made the instrument of obtaining gos- 
pel-blessings, we might fancy some peculiar worth was in 



AS FAITH TO A SINNER. 125 

that duty to procure the blessings. But when faith, which 
is only lifting up an empty hand or a longing eye to 
Jesus, is made the instrument of salvation, it is clearly 
shewn that the covenant is of grace wholly, both in its 
contrivance and conveyance. It is therefore of faith, 
that it might be by grace. 

Grod has chosen this foolish instrument as the means of 
receiving salvation, that no flesh might glory in his pres- 
ence. Yet foolish as the instrument may seem", it is of 
curious heavenly workmanship. No man, with all his 
wit, can make it ; though many act the ape, and mimic 
it. TJiis foolishness of God is iviser than men : they 
cannot comprehend it ; "but growl at God as clogs howl at 
the moon. 

Doctor, I must open my bag again : young cubs, I find, 
are not regarded by you. Pray, cast a look upon this 
old fox ; see what a marvellous length of grizzly beard 
he has got ! Sure he must have been as old as Cain, 
and hunted oft by Enoch. He bears a very decent coun- 
tenance, you see ; and though a secret thief all his days, 
will preach about good works, I warrant him, and hope 
to make a penny of them ; but hear him. 

"None can justly claim more merit than . a fox. He 
nightly watches every neighbor's fold and henroost ; and, 
like an upright justice, takes up every vagrant that he 
meets. Yet notwithstanding all our vigilance, we are 
often vilified as evil-doers, and are told by the bawling 
methodists, that our good works will not justify us. Faith, 
you know, is not a fox's traffic : our commerce lies in 
works, and by good works we live. Yet some have 
lately laid us on so thick with texts of faith, that we were 



126 OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST 

gravelled by them, till an ancient Reynard started up 
and said, why, sure the Bible can afford more justifica- 
tions than one. This proved a lucky thought, and was 
happily pursued. One fox started a brace presently, 
another sprung a leash, and a third found two brace sit- 
ting. You may think our hearts were much refreshed by 
these reports, and the justifications were in this order ; 
first by faith alone, then by works alone, then by faith 
and works conjointly, and then by neither faith nor works 
at all. We are pretty sure of escaping by one or another 
of these methods, and are determined to try them all 
round. In the meantime, we have fixed on works for the 
first hearing, because the doctors tells us that only faith 
can justify us upon earth ; but they add, though works 
cannot justify us here below, they may chance to justify 
us in the world above. For, say they, who can tell what 
the next world is. and whether heavenly beings think so 
highly of good works as foxes do ? Cain, Ahitophel, 
and Judas, one in each dispensation, are retained as our 
counsel, who have promised to exert their utmost. And 
we do not doubt it, because they have been cast in the 
first trial, for want of faith ; and their next chance lieth, 
like ours, in the merit of their works." "Well, doctor, 
you have heard this subtle orator ; what think you ? 

I think, sir, if he gets a testimonial, the fox may turn 
a Levite. His creed might suit a modern pulpit, and a 
sheepfold would suit him ; it affords good picking. But 
to the business. The obedience of Christ, our surety, is 
the ground and meritorious cause of justification. Paul 
asserts, We are justified freely by grace through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He declares 



THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION. 127 

roundly, By the obedience of one, even Christ, shall 
many be made righteous ; and affirms that the righteous- 
ness of God (the God-man surety), is unto all, and 
upon all K that believe ; is imputed unto all that believe ; 
and put upon all, as their justification robe. David will 
make mention of this righteousness, and of this only. 
Isaiah tells you what the church's faith was in his day, 
surely in the Lord have I righteousness; and Peter 
writes to them, who have obtained precious faith, not 
through, but in the righteousness of our God and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. 

On the other hand, Paul declares, By the deeds of the 
law, no flesh living shall be justified in God's sight ; 
and intimates that a justification by works would destroy 
the covenant of grace, To him that loorheth, the reward is 
not reckoned of grace, but of debt ; that is, if any could 
justify himself by works, his reward would be a legal debt, 
and not the gift of gospel grace. The text alone, if there 
was no other, would exclude all justification by works, as 
inconsistent with a covenant of grace. For if we are 
justified wholly by works, the reward would be wholly of 
debt ; if justified in part, it would be partly of debt. But 
God has no debts to pay in the gospel. It is the grace of 
God ivhich brings salvation, and no flesh shall glory in 
his presence. 

Thus the Bible declares that no man shall be justified 
before God by his works ; that men are justified by faith ; 
and that faith only justifies by resting on the obedience of 
Christ as the meritorious cause of justification. 

But this matter may require some enlargement. The 
Scripture comprehends all wicked men in the general name 



128 NO MAN JUSTIFIED BY HIS WORKS. 

of unbelievers; and Jesus says, He that lelieveth not is 
condemned already. How is that ? Why, every man is 
a sinner ; and the law declares, the wages of sin is death. 
Of course a sentence of death is passed on every sinner, 
and if he dies in unbelief, he needs no second condemna- 
tion, because he is condemned already. But the sentence 
of the law is a silent verdict, not heard and felt by uncon- 
vinced sinners, else they would fly to Jesus ; neither does 
the law declare the various measures of that death, which 
are due to various sinners ; it only says in general, 
" Cursed are you, and ye shall die." 

Hence we may learn what is the judge's office at the grand 
assize, not to pass a second condemnation on the wicked — 
that would be needless, they are condemned already — but 
to make an open declaration of that secret verdict which 
the law has passed, and then appoint the various measures 
of that death which are due to sinners. 

When' a jury, in our courts of justice, find a culprit 
guilty, the judge passeth sentence. But is the judge's 
sentence a second condemnation ? Not at all. The jury 
do condemn the culprit, and the judge pronounceth sen- 
tence according to the jury's verdict, and then declares 
the punishment to be inflicted on the convict. 

A sinner therefore is not first condemned on earth for 
want of faith, and then condemned in the clouds a second 
time for want of righteousness. No ; his state of misery 
is finally determined by unbelief — He thai lelieveth not 
shall he damned ; but the measure of his misery depends 
upon the measure of his own iniquity. Unbelief alone 
condemns the sinner ; and in consequence of that condem- 
nation, he suffers punishment according to his crimes. 



JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 129 

We may now consider how it faretli with believers. 
Jesus saith, Whosoever believeth in the Son of man, shall 
not perish, but have eternal life. And it is further said, 
He that believeth on the Son hath, or possesseth, everlast- 
ing life. Here we read that faith gives a present posses- 
sion of everlasting life. It is begun in the soul on earth, 
and shall be perfected in 'heaven ; and to strengthen the 
believer's hope, it is added, he shall not perish. A full 
absolution from eternal misery, and a full promise of eter- 
nal life, with a present possession of it, is granted to be- 
lievers on the mere account of faith. And what security 
can they further want or have ? 

Again, it is said, All that believe are justified from all 
things. Now I ask, if believers are justified already, 
what further justification can they need ? And if justified 
from all things, what further justification can they have ? 
It is not possible to be more justified than from all things, 
and so far believers are justified in the present life. 

The Scripture spcaketh of a first and second covenant, 
but nowhere speaketk of a first and second justification. 
Such a twofold justification must suppose there are degrees 
in it, and that the latter increaseth the former, else it is 
needless : but this is quite repugnant to its nature. For 
justification is an individual whole, like a unit. Take 
anything from a unit, or add anything to it, and it ceaseth 
to be a unit. So the man who is truly justified is justified 
from all things ; and such a one cannot possibly be more 
justified, nor can be less than justified. 

Beloved John, might have more of Christ's affection 
than Philip, and a brighter crown than Philip, but could 
not have more justification than Philip. Because, though 
i 



130 THE JUDGE 

there are degrees in the affection and rewards of Christ, 
there can be no degrees in his justification. A man must 
either have the whole or none at all ; must either be jus- 
tified from all things, or be condemned. 

And now, sir, the justification, which has passed secretly 
in a believer's breast, known indeed to him and declared, 
but derided by the world, this will be notified publicly by 
the judge at last, and degrees of glory be assigned to each, 
according to their various fruitfulness. 

Thus a believer's state of happiness is finally determined 
by his faith : He that believeth shall be saved ; but the 
measure of his happiness in that state depends upon the 
fruits of faith. Faith alone saves a Christian ; but his 
crown is brighter according as his faith works more abun- 
dantly by love. 

But another matter must be taken into this account, 
beside the declaration of the proper sentences, and assign- 
ment of the proper retributions. David says, the Lord 
will be justified when he speaketh ; and be cleared when 
hejudgeth. The world neither know nor regard the faith, 
which is of God's operation, but are content with one of 
human manufacture ; and finding no advantage from this 
faith, they consider all faith as a trifling or a despicable 
matter. It appeareth such an idle business as can never 
justify, and seemeth such a reflection upon God, to assign 
that office to it ; yea, and all that wear the gospel-cloak of 
faith, full and deep, are thought enthusiasts or impostors, 
men who have lost their wits, or lost their honesty, and fit 
only for Bedlam or for Newgate. 

Now when Jesus judgeth, he will clear this matter up, 
and vindicate the credit and appointment of faith. He 
will show what fruits have been produced by faith ; and 



CLEARS HIMSELF. 131 

though they cannot justify the little flock before God, yet 
when openly proclaimed by the judge, they will- justify 
him in the choice of the instrument, and will justify be- 
lievers evermore from all aspersions cast upon them by the 
world, as if they were not zealous of good works, because 
they renounced all dependence on them. 

Take notice, sir, how the judge speaks to the sheep on 
his right hand. A choice fruit of faith, the sanctification 
of the heart, our meetness for glory, is not even mentioned 
by him ; because the world could be no witness of it : he 
only noticeth their works, and only such of these as must 
be public and notorious. 1 was hungry, and ye fed me ; 
naked, and ye clothed me ; a stranger, and ye took me 
in ; sick or in prison, and ye visited me. And what 
say the sheep to this honorable mention ? Do they speak, 
as if expecting to be justified by their works ? No : just 
the contrary. All think themselves such unprofitable 
servants, that they will not own a good work has been 
done by them. " Lord," say they, " when did we so, or 
so, as thou hast spoken ?" 

Jesus next applies himself to the goats on his left, and 
takes no kind of notice of their unholy hearts ; for, being 
strangers to the nature of holiness, they would have cried 
out, " Lord, we always had good hearts — much sounder 
than those sheep upon your right, who were evermore 
complaining of their loathsome hearts." Jesus therefore 
directs his speech to their morality, and only maketh 
mention of good works, which they had some knowledge 
of, and expected to be justified by them. Here he shows 
they have been wanting, and confounds them in their own 
hope. Thus the judge clears himself when he judgeth; 



132 HEAVENLY MANSIONS 

The sheep were justified by faith ; and that act is vindi- 
cated to the world by the precious fruits of faith. The 
goats were condemned through unbelief, and are silenced 
by that unrighteousness which unbelief produced. 

It is observable that not a single sheep expects to be 
justified by works ; yet the goats do expect it, every one. 
When Jesus tells them, / was hungry, and ye fed me 
not ; nalced, and ye clothed me not ; sick, and ye visited 
me not, &c> they answer briskly, When saw we thee an 
hungered, or athirst, or nahed, or sick, or in prison, 
and did not minister unto thee ? That is, when were 
we wanting in our service to thee ? Thus they come with 
a full justification in their mouths, ready for the trial ; yet 
are all confounded. 

It is further observable, that Jesus does not charge the 
goats with never having done any acts of charity. No : 
some of them might have founded schools or colleges ; 
and some have given largely to the Lock and Magdalen, 
or to assembly-rooms and playhouses : and some might 
have undone themselves by largesses before or at elec- 
tions. But when a goat is bountiful, he seeks to please 
Ms own humor, or glorify his own name, or promote a dis- 
tant interest. No true regard is had to Jesus, nor to his 
little flock ; these are always overlooked. The doctrines 
of the sheep are loathsome, and their bleating trade of 
prayer is nauseous to a goat. He could wish the world 
well eased of them all. Therefore Jesus says, "Whatever 
bounty ye have done, inasmuch as ye did it not to the 
least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me ; in neg- 
lecting and despising my own family, ye have neglected 
and despised me. Therefore, " Depart, ye cursed." 



133 



Give me leave to twist another thread about a lash you 
had before. If the glories of the next world are called 
reicards, they are affirmed to he rewards, not of debt, but 
of grace ; not due for our works, but bestowed through the 
grace of Jesus. Eternal death, in all its various horrors, 
is the just deserved wages of sin; but eternal life, in all 
its various glories, is the gift of God, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. And therefore, though the little flock 
may be rewarded according to their works, they cannot 
be rewarded for the merit of them. A man of plain 
sense may see a difference here with his naked eye, which 
yet is often not discerned by a scribe with his microscope. 

Take an illustration. A tender-hearted gentleman 
employs two laborers out of charity, to weed a little spot 
of four square yards. Both are old and much decrepit, 
but one is stronger than the other. The stronger weeds 
three yards, and receives three crowns : the weaker 
weedeth one, and receives one crown. Now both the 
laborers are rewarded for their labor, and according to 
their -labor, but not for the merit of their labor. You 
cannot say their work deserves their wages. And yet 
their work deserves their wages better, an hundred thou- 
sand fold, than our poor works can merit an eternal weight 
of glory. 

Oh, sir, God must abominate the pride, the insolence 
of human pride, which could dream of merit ; it is enough 
to make a devil blush. Yea, and some would purchase 
heavenly mansions with such scraps of alms as would not 
buy an earthly toy. 

What comes from God is gift, and much he has to give 
but nothing that he sells for work which we can do. He 



134 WORKING FOR LIFE, THE LAW OF MOSES. 

disdains such paltry commerce, and the saucy tribe of 
merit-mongers, who can fancy God ■will sell his heaven, 
and that their works may purchase it. 

Sir, remember traps are laid around every fundamental 
doctrine ; and I perceive your lips are heaving an objec- 
tion to the present doctrine. Poor John, disguised in 
the beard of Moses, and loaded with the Sinai tables, is 
suborned to betray his master, and compelled thus to 
speak — Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of life. But, sir, if 
rewards are not of debt, as Paul affirms, they are not due 
for our works ; and if not due, our works have no right 
to the rewards, no right to the tree of life ; neither does 
St. John assert it. A mask is put upon his face to hide 
his look and meaning. 

The word which we translate a right, signifieth here, 
as frequently elsewhere, a gracious privilege. Thus in 
his gospel, John says, As many as received Christ, that is, 
believed on him, to them he gave (iSovaiav*) the privilege 
(as you read it in the Bible margin) to become the sons 
of God; a privilege, not claimed as a right, through the 
merit of faith, but bestowed freely, as a gift. To them 
lie gave the privilege to become the sons of God. 

Jesus says — He that believeth possesseth everlasting 
life. Then by believing he must surely enter the city 
gates, and taste of the tree of life. For if a believer 
should miscarry, the life he possesseth proveth not an 
everlasting life, but temporary ; and the word of Christ 
falls to the ground. 

But a general answer may be given to all objections of 
this kind. St. John says, They that do his command* 



BELIEVING FOR LIFE, THAT OF CHRIST. 135 

merits have a privilege to the tree of life. If you ask what 
is meant by doing his commandments, I answer in one 
word, believing. Nay, sir, do not start like a young colt, 
but hear and judge like a man. Working for life is the 
law of Moses ; believing for life is the law of Jesus. And 
where divine faith is truly found, it will effectually justify, 
really sanctify, and surely glorify ; will bring a sinner but 
of Egypt, through the wilderness, into Canaan, and fairly 
perch him on the tree of life. 

Hear St. Paul's account of faith, a choice apostle, but 
no great favorite of the scribes. Human telescopes do 
not magnify Paul ; he is not within the compass of their 
glasses ; no moonlight planet, but a star ; and take the 
matter in his own words : — Made wise to salvation by 
faith — become children of God by faith — justified by 
faith — receive forgiveness of sins by faith — sanctified 
by faith — receive the Spirit through faith — access to 
God by faith — Christ dwelling in the heart by faith — 
work righteousness through faith — obtain promises by 
faith — walk by faith — stand by faith — saved by 
grace through faith. And St. Peter adds, kept by the 
power of God through faith unto salvation. 

Thus the Christian life is a life of faith in the Son 
of God ; and the Christian work is to fight this good 
fight. Believing is the Christian's trade and maintenance, 
procures him pardon and holiness, creates his present peace 
and future prospects, makes him steady and valiant in 
fight, and brings him triumphantly to glory. 

And now, sir, when you hear the Philippian jailor ask- 
ing Paul What he must do to be saved, you need not 
think the answer was defective, Believe in the Lord Jesus 



136 BELIEVING, THE SUM OF THE GOSPEL. 

Christ, and thou shalt be saved. This answer of Paul 
is transcribed from his master's copy, Go ye into all 
nations, and preach the gospel to every creature. He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But if 
Paul's answer was not defective, it is plain, that as doing 
was the sum of the law, so believing is the sum of the 
gospel. It is the tetal life of all duty, and the total 
term of all salvation — including and producing all obe- 
dience, yet crucifying all merit. Faith owes its birth, and 
growth, and blessings, all to Jesus ; and it resteth wholly 
on him, renouncing self, and glorying in the Saviour, as 
the all in all. 

However, since professors frequently amuse themselves 
with fancies instead of faith, and think a mere assenting 
unto Scripture doctrines is believing in Christ Jesus, 
something is often joined with faith to prevent deception. 
Thus Paul, In Jesus Christ nothing avails but faith, 
which worketh by love. The words, worketh by love, 
are added as the genuine fruit and evidence of faith. If 
works of love are not produced, the faith is not of God ; 
yet, when produced, they do not justify. 

Perhaps you might be pleased to know St. John's 
thoughts about keeping the commandments, because the 
text was quoted from him ; and his mind is intimated in 
his first epistle, Whatsoever we ask we receive of him, 
because we keep his commandments ; and this is his com- 
mandment, that we should believe on the name of his 
Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. Does not the 
latter clause declare that believing on Jesus is keeping 
the commandments ? Love indeed is added here, as 
before by Paul, yet only as an evidence of faith, and a 
guard against delusion. 



FAITH ACCOMPANIED BY WORKS. 137 

Jesus Christ explained the moral law, for the convic- 
tion of sinners, and for a rule of life to believers ; but 
when he declares the terms of salvation, nothing is men- 
tioned hut faith. It is never said He that believeth and 
obeyeth the law shall be saved, but absolutely, he that 
believeth shall be saved. Here obedience is designedly 
kept from our eyes, and withdrawn from faith, to prevent 
our resting on obedience as a condition of salvation, or a 
ground of justification. 

The apostles also give many rules to direct the walk of 
faith, and often couple faith with love or obedience, and 
declare that the faith which produceth not good works, is 
a dead faith — the cold product of a human brain, and 
cannot justify. If faith is alone, unattended with works, 
it is not the faith of God, and does not unite the soul to 
Christ, and cannot draw life from him. But when the 
apostles speak expressly of justification, you hear of 
nothing else but faith ; then it is justified by faith — 
saved by grace through faith — believe in the Lord Jesus, 
and thou shalt be saved. At such times, like their mas- 
ter, they purposely drop obedience, to prevent a reliance 
on it for justification. 

When Paul is largely handling the point of justifica- 
tion, he quotes a passage from the Psalms, and intro- 
duceth it with this preface, "Even as David describeth 
the blessedness of the man, unto whom Grod imputeth 
righteousness without works, saying," Blessed are they, 
whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are cov- 
ered, blessed is the man, to whom the Lord will not 
impute sin. Here Paul breaks off the quotation, and 
omits the latter clause of the verse, in whose spirit there 



138 THE LAW OF THE GOSPEL. 

is no guile. And why does he omit the latter clause ? 
Because it describes the renewed nature and the fruit of 
a justified person, which were not to be considered in the 
matter of justification, but wholly withdrawn from our 
eyes. 

We are not justified before God, because our natures 
are renewed; but (rod justifies the ungodly through 
believing. A sinner can be saved no other way, because 
the wages of sin is death ; yet it proves a most offensive 
way through the pride of a sinner's heart. 

Effectual and final justification by faith is the capital 
doctrine of the Grospel, a most precious grace of the new 
covenant, and the everlasting glory of the Redeemer. A 
man may steal some gems from the crown of Jesus, and 
be guilty only of petty larceny ; he may escape at last, 
like the cross thief — escape through the fire when his 
house is in a flame ; but the man who would justify him- 
self by his own works, steals the crown itself, puts it on 
his own head, and proclaims himself a king in Sion by 
his own conquests. 

Since, therefore, faith is the laio of the Gospel, the 
term of salvation, the instrument of obtaining every 
blessing, and the general commandment including all the 
rest, it must utterly exclude all justification by works. 
And the man who seeks to be justified by his passport of 
obedience, will find no passage through the city gates. 
He may talk of the tree of life, and soar up with his 
paper-kite to the gates of paradise, but will find no 
entrance. The gates belong to the Prince of Life, who 
is the real tree of life ; and only they shall enter who 
own him for their liege-lord, and place their whole depend- 



GOSPEL HOOKS. 139 

ence on him, and seek a passage through his grace 
entirely. Such shall have a cheering taste of the tree 
below, and a joyous feast above. 

You are peeping on my bag, doctor, for another fox, 
and here he is ; a pretty brisk fellow, truly ! How sharp 
he looks, and casts a gloating eye on you, as if he had a 
message for you; and now he opens. — "Doctor, I have 
listened to your talk, as I lay in the grazier's bag, and 
believe you are a greater fox than myself. Let the gra- 
zier look well to his purse, or he may find your fingers in 
it presently. I have many works to boast of ; but you 
have none, it seems ; and therefore raise a racket about 
faith. I must speak my mind freely, else my conscience 
will be loaded. All the honest foxes look upon you 
methodists as a set of crafty villains, and they would not 
trust a pullet's neck in any of your hands, notwithstand- 
ing all your sheepish looks. None can peep into a breast, 
you know ; and there the instrument of faith is kept, 
which hookeih down salvation. But these hooks, instead 
of being gospel-hooks, may chance to prove fish-hooks ; 
and I suppose you are angling for the grazier now, to 
catch him. The other night, as I was sauntering to a 
neighbor's henroost, I overheard some people talking of a 
slippery trick, lately played by a juggler. It seems he 
talked high of faith, and called himself a deep professor, 
and he proved much too deep for shallow people there. 
His nimble tongue first gained their admiration, then 
their confidence, and then their purses. He borrowed 
many pretty sums, and having fairly caught them with 
his fish-hook, he prudently retired. This may prove a 
caution to the grazier not to snap at your baited hook, but 



140 CHEATS WILL ARISE. 

to rest upon his good works, as the foxes do." Why, 
doctor, this fox is quite a master of arts, and seems a 
notable advocate for good works. And I must confess 
some check seemeth wanting in the covenant of grace. 
Cheats will arise, and how must we deal with them, 
doctor ? 

Deal with them, sir ! why, hang them, when detected, 
as Jesus hanged Judas. He had one religious cheat 
among his twelve, who made a penny of his master, but 
did not live to spend it. This Judas bids you guard 
against such cheats, but not be scandalized at the Gospel 
when they happen. You would not surely renounce hon- 
esty, because you have been cozened by a man who made 
a false pretence to it ; nor would I renounce my - creed 
because a sly professor proved a thief, and has been hanged. 

But, sir, you quite mistake the matter, in supposing 
that the Gospel does not guard against licentiousness. A 
covenant of grace cannot allow of legal conditions, which 
may procure a right to life, in whole or in part ; this 
would destroy the nature of the covenant. But it abounds 
with gospel checks, which answer the same purpose ; and 
where they do not prove sufficient, nothing else would . 

Naked faith, or a whole and simple trust in Jesus, is 
the gospel instrument which brings salvation. But though 
faith alone, apart from its fruit, is the saving instrument, 
yet it cannot be alone, or without its fruit, where it is 
saving faith, as St. James declares. And the Gospel, to 
prevent delusion, shews what is the fruit produced by 
faith. It bringeth heavenly peace, purines the heart, and 
overcomes the world. Faith is genuine where these fruits 
are found. The believer is a real branch of the true vine, 



HELL AND THE GALLOWS. 141 

and receives his fruit from it. The fruit shews the branch 
to be alive, but does not make it so — it beareth fruit, 
because it is alive. 

Where these fruits are neither found, nor truly sought, 
faith is not of God's operation ; it is a dead, and not a 
living faith. It may be clear in Scripture doctrines, but 
has no real union with Christ, and of course no influence 
from him. It is not grafted in the vine, but tied to it 
with profession thread, and so is dead and withered. But, 
sir, the fruit of faith does not justify a sinner.; and this 
must be oft repeated to check a legal heart, which is 
moved only by legal fears and hopes. 

None feel the force of gospel motives, till they taste of 
gospel blessings. Hell and a gallows, proper checks in 
their place, keep some out of mischief, who find no com- 
fort, nor expect it, in God's service ; and a fond hope of 
making purchases in heaven puts some on almsgiving, and 
fasting, and prayer. Such only make account of obedi- 
ience, as of a thing whereby they must be saved; and 
being told it cannot save them, because it is not perfect, 
they ask in much surprise, what then is it good for? 
Why, sir, it is good to glorify God for the mercy of a rich 
and free salvation — a grateful homage paid to a gracious 
God. And it is further good to evidence the truth of faith 
to ourselves and others. 

Wheny^ and peace are found through believing, and 
the sweet atonement is sealed on the conscience, a Chris- 
tian crieth out, I am bought with a price, and must glo- 
rify God with my body and my spirit, which are God's. 
With Paul, he can say, the love of Christ constrains me, 
and feel its sweet compulsion. Gratitude begins to act, 



142 CHRIST ALL OR NOTHING. 

and love sharpens gratitude ; and sights of glory, fetched 
in by faith, quicken both. 

The legal hope of being saved by our doings is rooted 
deep in every human mind, and never can be rooted out, 
till grace has overcome it. It made a busy stir when the 
"Gospel first appeared, and has raised ferments ever since. 
Very early, some cried out, Except ye be circumcised, ye 
cannot be saved. Had they suffered circumcision, as be- 
lieving it a duty still required, and purposing by such 
obedience to glorify God ; or had they used it, like Tim- 
othy, at Paul's instigation, for a more convenient spread- 
ing of the Gospel, no harm at all had been done. But 
when they seek to be saved by this doing, Paul takes fire, 
throws his hat up, and begins to exclaim, Behold, I Paul, 
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised (with this view), 
Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to 
every man, that is (thus) circumcised, he is a debtor to 
do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect to you, 
who are justified by the law : ye are fallen from grace. 

The Galatians did not seek to be wholly justified by 
works : no, they blended the two covenants together, as 
modern Christians do, and sought to be justified from both ; 
partly from their own works, and partly from Christ. 
This appears from Paul's saying, Christ is of no effect 
to you who are justified by the law : Christ shall profit 
you nothing. Which implies, that the Galatians did ex- 
pect some effect and some profit from Christ, as well as 
some from their works. Again, when Paul says, Ye are 
debtors to do the whole law, this also shews, they did not 
count themselves such debtors, but only sought a partial 
justification, by sincere obedience to the law. 



FAITH WITH A TWO-EDGED SWORD. 143 

The apostle's meaning in the fore-cited passage is plainly 
this : Whoever seeks to be justified in any measure by 
his works, such a one falls from grace, and becomes a 
debtor to do the whole law. Christ will justify you wholly, 
or none at all. Either take him as a whole Saviour, or 
he profits you nothing, is of no effect to you. 

It matters not at all whether the work be ritual or 
moral that we seek to be saved by ; whether it be parting 
with our cash in charity, or parting with our flesh in cir- 
cumcision, which is the sorest work of the two. If we 
seek at all to be saved by any work of our own, ivefall 
from grace. Therefore, when Paul had spoken first of 
circumcision in particular, he next affirms of the whole 
law in general, that whosoever is justified by it is fallen 
from grace ! 

Paul was eminent in ministerial labors and in Christian 
holiness ; yet in the point of justification, he counted all 
things but loss, in comparison of Christ. His labors 
and his holiness, if rested on in any wise for justification, 
would have brought him loss instead of gain, and made 
Christ of no effect to him. He therefore desires to be 
found in Jesus, not having his own righteousness (to 
justify), but that which is through the faith of Christ, 
the righteousness of God by faith. In other words, he 
desires to be found at the bar of God, not in his own per- 
sonal righteousness, but in the righteousness of his heav- 
enly surety. 

But you are waiting for more gospel-checks, I perceive, 
to prevent the abuse of faith. What think you, sir, of 
this ? Faith worketh by love. It passed muster lately, 
yet wants to be reviewed ; good troops are often exercised. 



144 FAITH CRUCIFIES A PHARISEE. 

It is a two-edged sword, which sliceth off the wanton ears 
of an antinomian, and the saucy hopes of a legalist. Faith 
is here described as a working principle, a heavenly root 
producing heavenly fruit ; and thus it slays Herodians 
and Sadducees. But though a working faith, it worketh 
not for hire like a laborer, but like a son for love. A 
child of God does not hope to purchase heaven by his 
works, but seeks with loving heart to glorify a heavenly 
father for the mercy of adoption ; and thus faith crucifies 
a Pharisee. 

If you inquire of Habakkuk and Paul, who are lodged 
in the same apartment, both the Old and New Testament 
Saint will tell you, TJie just shall live by faith. Here 
they give you a believer's character, he is a just or right- 
eous man ; and yet declare he does not live by his right- 
eousness, does, not gain a title unto life by it — he lives 
by faith. His new nature makes him hunger for im- 
planted righteousness, as a meetness for heaveu ; but his 
faith bids him seek an imputed righteousness as his title 
to heaven. He follows after righteousness as his proper 
business and delight ; but sings at his work with Isaiah , 
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and 
in the Lord shall glory. 

Again, you read, Without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord. A legalist would see the Lord by his holiness, 
by the merit of it, but he cannot ; and an antinomian 
would see the Lord without holiness, but he must not. Thus 
a Christian man can neither see the Lord without holiness 
nor by it ; which, though a truth, may seem a mystery to 
many. 

Lastly. The Gospel declares roundly, that whosoever 



THE FOX ? S TRICKS. 145 

Hveth in the works of the flesh, in adultery, fornication, 
uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, en- 
vyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. For all who live 
and die in such works, plainly show themselves destitute 
of that faith which purifies the heart, and works by love. 

And now, sir, I trust you will no more complain that 
faith is destitute of proper guards. No earthly monarch 
can be better guarded. If any more foxes are left in your 
bag, pray lug them out ; I must be going presently. 

Doctor, you shall have another quickly. I am drag- 
ging out his heels ; and here he is. But how he grins at 
me ! Sure, I do not half like his countenance. What is 
the matter, Reynard ? 

" Matter enough, master grazier! Why am I cooped 
in a bag, and bereft of liberty ? I was born in a free 
country, and have a right to breathe free air. If I trick 
a lamb out of your fold sometimes, do not you trick a 
butcher too with worthless sheep ? And does he not trick 
his customers with injured mutton ? And do not they 
trick the butcher often out of his money ? So your trick- 
ing, like the year, goes round ; and the best of you is but 
a fox to his neighbor. W'hen we borrow lambs or geese, 
necessity compels us. We must live by our wits, or not 
at all. You are satisfied we have no convenience for 
breeding lambs or poultry ; and if we had, there is reason 
to suspect you would make as free with our folds and hen- 
roosts, as we do with yours. If harmless hares cannot 
well escape you, neither would our lambs and poultry. 
Besides, an honest fox, when taken in a henroost, no more 
K 



146 FOXES CANNOT LIVE BY HONESTY. 

complains of dying, than your good Christian folks com- 
plain of hanging, when taken in a burglary. But this we 
do complain of, as a very partial thing, that some of us, a 
little remnant, are picked out from the rest, and have 
wholesome food and lodging in a stable yard, while the 
rest are doomed to destruction. I am bagged for a hunt, 
and every day must live in fear of hounds ; while the 
smirking fox, inhabiting a kennel, lives every day in peace 
and plenty like a gentleman. No reason can be given for 
this arbitrary choice, since all our natures are the same ; 
and if bad, are but as we received them ; nor can we make 
them better. We foxes often talk about morality, and 
like it fully as well as you ; but we cannot live by hon- 
esty ; it proves our utter ruin, and so we practise it as lit- 
tle as yourselves. Oh, master grazier, if you can recon- 
cile this partial conduct towards foxes with common equity, 
never quarrel with your Bible-election. We have not 
wronged you, as' you have wronged him that made you ; 
and we may claim far better usage from you, than you can 
claim from your Maker." 

Why, doctor, this fox preaches like a methoditjt ; he 
must have been a curate at the tabernacle, or some Recruit- 
ing sergeant to the countess ; but he shall have to hunt 
to-morrow for his saucy sermon. I cannot bear the sub- 
ject. Our vicar always shakes his head when he hears of 
election ; and the schoolmaster makes a woful wry mouth 
at it. He will let his face down amazingly, when the 
word is only casually mentioned. Indeed my stomach 
rises sadly at the doctrine. It is a frightful notion, 
exceedingly discouraging, and seemeth not consistent with 
common equity. What think you of it, doctor ? 



THE FURNACE A SCHOOL. 147 

Sir, I think the doctrine of election never can agree 
with human merit. One will be always barking at the 
other. Every man who seeks to justify himself by works, 
will loath the doctrine heartily, and load it lustily with 
most reproachful names. Yet men reject the doctrine, 
not for want of Scripture evidence, but for want of humbled 
hearts. We are not willing to be saved by an election of 
grace till we know ourselves, and find our just desert. 

A furnace is the proper school to learn this doctrine in, 
and there I learnt it. Nor men nor books could teach it 
me ; for I would neither hear nor read about it. A long 
and rancorous war I waged with it; and when my sword 
was broken, and both my arms were maimed, I yet main- 
tained a sturdy fight, and was determined I would never 
yield ; but a furnace quelled me. Large afflictions, 
largely wanted, gave me such experience of my evil heart, 
that I could look upon electing grace without abhorrence ; 
and as I learned to loath myself, I learned to prize this 
grace. It seemed clear, if God had mercy for me, it 
only could be for this gracious reason, because he would 
have mercy ; for every day and every hour, my desert was 
death. 

Sir, the color rises in your face ; and I shall take a 
hasty leave unless your staff is laid upon the floor. The 
fox, I find, must have a hunt to-morrow, for the hint he 
dropped to-day ; and the least I can expect is bastinading. 
I know the rancor of the human heart against this doc- 
trine, for I have sorely felt it ; and charitably thought 
that all its teachers were the devil's chaplains. Sir, I go 
directly, unless your staff is laid aside. 

Here, take it, doctor, in your own hand, and then you 



148 MERCY NOT A DEBT. 

may be easy ; but pray be very brief upon this matter, 
lest my choler should arise. I cannot stand a long fire 
upon election ground ; and if your words are very rough, 
they may bring on a furious handy- cuff. For your own 
shoulder's sake, do not lay me on too thick and hard. 

Plain speech, sir, is the best — such I give, and give 
without bitterness. If gall should mingle with my words, 
it will not drop from my lips, but trickle from your 
heart. 

I ask then, are you not a sinner ? And is not death 
the wages of sin ? And very just wages, because appointed 
by a, just God ? As a sinner then, you deserve death ; 
and every man that sins, deserves it also. And sinners, 
at the judgment-day, will be condemned, not because they 
were decreed to be damned, but because they did revolt 
from God, and break his righteous laws, and sought no 
hearty refuge in Christ Jesus. The Son of man will 
gather out of his kingdom all them who do iniquity, and 
will cast them into a furnace of fire. 

. No sinner then can urge a claim on God ; for every 
one has forfeited his life. God, if he pleased, might 
reserve them all for destruction, as he did the fallen 
angels ; or ho may reserve some for punishment, by leav- 
ing them to follow their own wickedness ; and be gracious 
unto others, by granting them repentance, faith, and holi- 
ness. And in shewing mercy unto these, he does no 
injury to others. 

If you think that God may not withhold his mercy from 
some, while he sheweth it to others, or that he is obliged 
to shew it unto any, or to all, then he has no grace to 
give, but is a debtor unto man; and the covenant of 
grace is an empty name. 



god's grace free. 149 

When traitors are condemned to die, it often happens 
that the king will spare some one at least, and hang the 
rest. And this act of grace may be shewn to one or 
more, without a charge of injustice to them that are 
hanged. One has cause to bless his prince, while the 
others have no reason to complain. 

And shall not the sovereign Lord of all be allowed to 
act in the same manner towards his rebellious subjects ? 
Must his hands be tied up, that he cannot do what an 
earthly prince may justly do, shew mercy to some offend- 
ers without injuring the rest ? This is hard indeed ! But 
God will not be fettered by the cobweb cords which human 
pride has weaved for him. He will have grace to give, 
and justice to inflict : and will be glorified in both. 

The provision of a Saviour gives no sinner right to 
claim the mercy of salvation. It only makes a way for 
God to exercise his mercy, in consistency with justice ; 
but he may exercise it when and where he pleaseth. 

The grace of God is called free ; not because it is free 
for you or me or any one to claim, but free for God to 
give to whom he pleaseth. His grace is free, just as my 
alms are free : and grace is heavenly alms. Now my 
alms are free, because they are bestowed freely, where I 
like. If any could demand them justly, they would cease 
to be an alms, an act of grace, and prove a debt. 

If men had due conceptions of the majesty and holiness 
of God, and of the traitorous nature, deep malignity, and 
heinous guilt of sin, their mouths would soon be stopped. 
But men forget their real state of condemnation, and 
dreaming of a claim on God through the fancied merit of 
obedience, grievously worm-eaten, they quarrel with the 



150 Christ's heart 

doctrine of election. And indeed the doctrine cannot har- 
monize with any human claim arising from a pure covenant 
of works, or from the mongrel covenant of faith and works, 
transported from Galatia into Britain, and carried by her 
convicts to the colonies. No ; the doctrine of election is 
altogether built upon a. pure covenant of grace, and shakes 
a friendly hand with this. Here God may grant, or may 
withhold his mercy, as he pleaseth ; since all are in a state 
of condemnation, and none can justly say unto him, What 
doest thou ? This, sir, may suffice to vindicate God's 
justice in electing grace ; and his justice is well grounded 
upon equity. He needs no court of chancery. 

Xeither has this doctrine any real tendency to discour- 
age sinners, when they truly seek salvation through Jesus 
Christ. It is not expected that any one should know him- 
self a chosen vessel, before he seeks salvation. This must 
be known by seeking. He cannot peep into the rolls of 
heaven, to see if his own name be written there, nor need- 
eth such a peep. His business lieth with the written 
word on earth, which tallies with the rolls in heaven. 
Secret things belong to God ; but ivhat is revealed belongs 
to us, and to our children for ever. 

Now, in the written word, a decree of God is found, 
which shews who are the chosen and the saved people — 
He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. The 
chosen people, therefore, are a race of true believers, con- 
vinced by God's Spirit of their rained state ; endowed with 
divine faith, by which they seek to Christ for help ; and 
seeking do obtain pardon, peace, and holiness. And an 
experience of these blessings brings assurance of election. 
Thus the written word unfolds the secret rolls of heaven. 



LINED WITH COMPASSION. 151 

By grace a sinner is enabled to believe ; and through be- 
lieving finds salvation, witnessed to his heart by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Jesus Christ, the bread of life, is freely offered in the 
Gospel to every hungry famished soul. Such are prepar- 
ed for the bread, and the bread prepared for such. And 
these should never pore upon the doctrine of election, but 
muse upon the Gospel promises, and call on Jesus confi- 
dently to fulfil them. He turns no real beggar from his 
gate however degraded. His heart is lined with sweet 
compassion, and his hands are stored with gifts. He has 
supplies for all wants : legs for a lame beggar, eyes for a 
blind one, cordials for a faint one, garments for a naked 
one, a fountain for a filthy one, and a rope for a sham 
beggar, who asks for mercy, and yet talks of merit. 

Every one who feels the plague of his heart may come 
to Jesus. He gives them all a gracious invitation, and 
will afford a hearty welcome. Hear his words — tl Him 
that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out " — in no 
wise ! though vile as Manasseh, debased as Magdalen, 
guilty as the cross-thief, or ten times more so, Jesus will 
in no wise cast him out. Strange tidings to a Phar- 
isee ! 

But a weary soul who is sick, and poor, and blind, 
and miserable and naked, should come just as he is — 
just as the patients in Judea did, and not stay to fit him- 
self for a cure. This is a sorry trick of the legal heart, 
which wants to purchase favor, and take the work out of 
the Saviour's hands. The feeling of our sickness makes 
us fit for the physician ; and when we seek to him, every 
fancied recommendation of our own must be cast aside, 



152 SINNER ASLEEP. 

like the robe of Bartimeus, else it twines about the feet, 
throws a sinner down, and prevents his walk to Jesus. 

It is the Saviour's office, as it is his honor, and his 
heart's delight to save a sinner freely ; to call, and wash, 
and heal, and clothe, and feed a prodigal at his own ex- 
pense. He asks no recommendation but his misery and 
helplessness, and does relieve his patients now, as he re- 
lieved them in Judea, out of mere compassion. All that 
seek in his appointed way will be saved graciously, and 
love the Saviour heartily. He makes them happy, wise, 
and holy, and they give him all the praise. He puts the 
crown at last upon their head, and they return it to his 
feet, as a clue acknowledgment that the crown was pur- 
chased by his merit, and bestowed through his mercy. 
Thus Jesus will be ever glorious, ever lovely in a ransomed 
sinner's eyes ; and eternity will seem too short to utter 
half his praise. 

Now, sir, what discouragement can you find in this doc- 
trine to make it frightful ? The Gospel bids us give all dili- 
gence to make our calling and election sure. Such as feel 
their ruined state are graciously invited to partake of mer- 
cy ; and all who seek with diligence are assured they sball 
find ; and when they find the peace and love of God shed 
in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, an inward evidence 
of their election is obtained, and by a growth in grace it 
is confirmed. 

Thus an awakened sinner who feels his misery has no 
cause to be alarmed at the doctrine ; and a sinner fast 
asleep will commonly despise it. He wants no drawings 
of God's Spirit ; he is wise enough to draw himself; nor 
needs a shepherd's care to fetch him to the fold ; he is 



DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 153 

, strong enough to fetch himself ; nor can "bear the Lord 
should say, I have chosen you ; he is old enough to 
choose for himself. He can climb into the fold by his own 
nimble legs, and keep himself there by his ready wit — no 
thanks to the shepherd. And he looks and talks so 
bravely, one is almost grieved to hear the shepherd say a 
climber is a thief ; and by that word condemn him to the 
gallows. 

Sinners perish through security, and this doctrine of 
election brings a little friendly thunder to arouse them. 
They think salvation is the work of man, and presume 
they may repent and turn to God just when they please — 
to-morrow or the next day, as well as in the present day, 
and so are unconcerned about it. But here they find an 
awful truth, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him 
that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. It is 
therefore time to look about them, to ask, and seek, and 
knock, lest the door should be shut. 

But what avails our seeking, you reply, unless we are 
elected ? Sir, I say again, your business does not lie with 
the secret rolls of heaven, but with the ivritten word on 
earth ; and the written word declares, Ye shall seek and 
find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 
Whoever thinks himself an elected person, and does not 
seek, as God requires, with all his heart, will find himself 
most dreadfully confounded. And such as seek with all 
their heart, yet doubt of their election, will find at length 
that God is their covenant-God in Christ. And when by 
seeking they have found him so, they will some time be 
made to see that grace alone, electing grace, did give them 
both the will to seek and the power to find. 



154 PLAYING THE FOX. 

None can come to Jesus, except the Father draws them. 
Yet sinners do not perish, because they cannot come, but 
because they will not come. Jesus says — " Ye will not 
come to me that ye may have life" Man's ruin lieth 
wholly in his own perverse will. He cannot come, 
because he will not. Help enough is provided were he 
willing : but he will not heartily accept of Jesus as his 
only Prophet, Priest, and King; his heart will not submit 
to be wholly saved by grace through faith. 

When the will is well subdued, and grace alone sub- 
dues it, Christ is ready for a sinner, and the promises 
invite him sweetly unto Christ — Whosoever ivill, let 
him come ; and again, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come. 

Thus salvation is of the Lord alone, and damnation 
wholly from ourselves. Men perish because they will not 
come to Jesus ; yet if they have a will to come, it is God 
ivho works the will in them ; grace, electing grace, both 
draws the will, and keeps it steady ; and to grace be all 
the praise. Well, sir, anymore chattering foxes in your 
bag? 

Yes, doctor, one more ; but the last served me such a 
scurvy trick, I have no heart to drag this other out. It 
may answer fully as well to borrow Reynard's face, and 
play the fox myself. 

Your doctrine of election, I confess, is bravely sweet- 
ened by another portion of your creed, called perseverance. 
If the former seems a sour pill, this is quite a honeycomb. 
I never heard till lately of this doctrine, and learnt it then 
by accident. Last midsummer I went to G-amble fair, 
and when the market was well over, a knot of graziers, 
old acquaintances, dined with me at a public house. Be- 



MR. FULSOME. 155 

ing seated round a table, a pert young fellow stepped into 
the room, who swung his hat into the window, and thrust 
a chair among us, to partake of the ordinary. His name, 
we learned afterwards, was Mr. Fulsome ; and his mother's 
maiden name was Miss Wanton. Mr. Fulsome was 
mighty still at dinner, and played his knife and fork 
exceedingly well; no man better. But when the cloth 
was removed, and some few tankards had gone round, Mr. 
Fulsome 's face looked like the red lion, painted on my 
landlord's sign, and his mouth began to open. He talked 
swimmingly about religion, and vapored much in praise 
of perseverance. Each fresh tankard threw a fresh light 
on his subject, and drew out a fresh head of discourse. 
" No sin, he said, can hurt me. I have had a call, and 
my election is safe. Satan may seize me, if he please ; 
but Jesus must replevy me. What care I for drunken- 
ness, or cheating, or a little lying ? These sins may hurt 
another, but they cannot hurt me. Let me wander where 
I will from God, Jesus Christ must fetch me back again. 
I may fall a thousand times, but I shall rise again. Yes, 

I may fall exceeding foully." And so he did, doctor; 

for instantly he pitched with his head upon the floor, and 
the tankard in his hand. The tankard was recovered ; 
but no one thought it worth their while to lift up Mr. Ful- 
some ; nor did he rise from his foul fall, accordino- to his 
prophecy. We left him silent on the floor when the shot 
was paid. Oh, doctor, what must we say of such pro- 
fessors ? 

The very same, sir, that Paul says, Their damnation 
is just. Such scandalous professors are found at all times 
in our day, and Paul's day ; yet he will not renounce the 



156 DOCTRINE OF PERSEVERANCE. 

doctrine of perseverance ; but having given these licen- 
tious men their dose, he declares a firm persuasion after- 
wards, that nothing shall he able to separate true believers 
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. 

Jesus Christ, the shepherd of the flock, declares, I give 
unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. Yes, he 
affirms, The mountains shall depart, and the hills he 
removed, hut my kindness shall not depart from thee, 
neither shall the covenant of my peace he removed, saith 
the Lord, wlio hath mercy upon thee. 

What right have you to pray for perseverance, unless 
it is a gift of the covenant ? You may pray only for what 
is freely promised ; and what is promised has been pur- 
chased for believers ; and being purchased for them, will 
be surely given to them, else the purchase were in vain. 

Pardon of sin is promised — / will forgive their ini- 
quities, and remember their sins no more ; therefore I 
may ask for pardon. 

Grace is promised to subdue our evil nature, Sin shall 
not have dominion over you ; he will subdue our ini- 
quities ; therefore I may ask for sanctifying grace. 

Perseverance too is promised — I will make an ever- 
lasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away 
from them to do them good ; hut I will put my fear in 
their hearts, that they shall not departjfrom me ; there- 
fore I may ask for persevering grace, and should ask with 
confidence, as David did. The Lord, he says, will per- 
fect that which does concern me ; therefore he prays, for- 
sake not the tcorks of thine own hands. 

God's promises are the foundation for our prayers ; and 



SERGEANT IP. 157 

were designed, not to make the means of grace needless, 
but to stir men up to a diligent use of them. A gracious 
heart maketh this use ; but a corrupt heart turns the grace 
of God into wantonness, and no legal terrors would pre- 
vent it. The thunders, lightnings, earthquakes, which 
shook Mount Sinai, almost terrified the Israelites to death ; 
yet a day after, we find them brisk and jolly, setting up 
an idol, and dancing round it merrily. And such is hu- 
man nature, almost killed with fear at an awful provi- 
dence, yet laughing at that fear when the shock is over. 
Nothing but the grace of God can set the heart right, and 
keep it steady. 

The doctrine of perseverance affords a stable prop to 
upright minds, yet lends no wanton cloak to corrupt 
hearts. It brings a cordial to revive the faint, and keeps 
a guard to check the froward. The guard attending on 
this doctrine is sergeant If ; low in stature, but lofty in 
significance — a very valiant guard, though a monosylla- 
ble. Kind notice has been taken of the sergeant by Jesus 
Christ and his apostles ; and much respect is due unto 
him from all the Lord's recruiting officers, and every sol- 
dier in his army. 

Pray, listen to the sergeant's speech ! If ye continue in 
my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. If ye do 
these things, ye shall never fall. If what ye have heard, 
shall abide in you, ye shall continue in the Son and in 
the Father. We are made partakers of Christ, if we 
hold steadfast unto the end. Whoso looketh and contin- 
ueth (that is, if he that looketh does continue) in the per- 
fect laiv of liberty, that man shall be blessed in his deed. 

Yet, take notice, sir, that sergeant If is not of Jewish, 



158 EVIDENCE OF 

but of Christian parentage ; not sprung from Levi, though 
a son of Abraham ; no sentinel of Moses, but a watchman 
for the camp of Jesus. He wears no dripping beard, like 
the circumcised race ; and is no legal blustering condition 
to purchase man's salvation, but a modest gospel evidence 
to prove the truth of grace. He tells no idle tales, that 
the sheep of Christ may perish, and a child of God mis- 
take his way, while his guide is fast asleep, and ramble 
down to hell ; but knowing there are various works which 
are but mimics of a work of grace, he kindly standeth on 
the king's highway of faith, producing peace and holiness ; 
and telleth passengers, if you contiuue walking in this 
way, your perseverance proves your faith is true ; for faith, 
which comes from Grod, endures, and brings men safe to 
God. 

Perseverance makes us not in Christ, but shews we are 
so ; unites no branch unto the vine, but proves it is 
united ; merits not the crown of heaven, but shews our 
walk is heavenward. A persevering walk is an evidence 
that we are blessed with persevering grace ; and are not 
of them who draw hack unto destruction, hut of them 
who helieve to the saving of the soul. 

"When this little sergeant is neglected, and appeareth 
to be scouted, bad effects ensue. Chaffy hearers, resting 
on a shallow work, are dancing after all new doctrines, 
and stirring up confusion. Upright people often grow 
remiss, and through a sauntering foot are apt to trip, and 
lose their evidences : preaching, too, becomes a sore 
travail, a needful rod for the preacher's back, to make him 
friendly with the sergeant; and occasion may be taken, 
by them who seek occasion, to revile the doctrine. 



THE GRACE OF PERSEVERANCE. 159 

"When Jesus says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, 
and they shall never perish, this secures the perseverance 
of the saints. And when he further says, If ye continue 
in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, this shews 
that actual perseverance in the way of faith and holiness 
Inust be my evidence to prove that I am one of his sheep. 
A belief of the doctrine of perseverance cannot save me, 
without the grace of perseverance. 

In the Old Testament, the saint's perseverance is thus 
expressed, They that are planted in the house of the 
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God ; they shall 
still bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and 
flourishing ; to shew that the Lord is upright — that is, 
faithful to his word, and does not forsake his people. 

In the New Testament, perseverance is described by 
the good ground which hears the word, and keeps it, and 
brings forth fruit with patience. 

This doctrine yields no real shelter to licentiousness or 
laziness. If perseverance is promised to the saints, then 
I must be found persevering in the path of duty and the 
means of grace, else the doctrine does condemn me, and 
destroy my evidence. 

St. Peter exhorts all Christians to make their calling 
and election sure ; not taking up this matter on lio-ht 
grounds, but using all diligence to be assured of it, by 
adding unto faith, courage, knowledge, temperance, 
patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. 
His meaning is, prove your grace by a growth in grace ; 
where heavenly seed is sown, it brings a harvest. And 
there is need of such an exhortation. Appearances of 
grace and faith are often found, which flash and sparkle 



160 Christ's vineyard. 

for a while, like meteors in the sky, and then vanish 
quite away. | 

Some, like the foolish virgins, bear a lighted lamp, and 
keep up Christian fellowship, yet have no oil in their 
vessels, no grace in their hearts : some, like Judas, 
preach the gospel-word, and cast out devils from thf 
hearts of others, but remain themselves the devil's bond- 
slaves : some, like stony ground, receive the word with 
eagerness, and find refreshment from it ; yet having no 
root, they take offence at persecution, and take their leave 
of Jesus : to some God gives another heart, as he gave 
to Saul, but not a new heart ; and such may prophesy, as 
Saul did, for a season ; and taste the joy, which prophets 
taste, yet be rejected from the kingdom, as Saul was. 
The sower's parable instructs us. that many are awakened, 
enlightened, and reformed in a measure, who seem hopeful 
for a time, yet having not a rooted faith in Christ, they 
dwindle quite away. These are awful evidences of that 
solemn and repeated word, Many are called, hut few are 
chosen. 

No dependence can be placed upon a present reforma- 
tion, nor on short-lived impressions from the word of joy 
or sorrow ; but a growth in grace, and in the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus, must be sought, as the crowning evi- 
dence of all the rest. The vineyard which the Lord 
planteth icill be kept and watered by him every moment ; 
kept by him, that none may hurt it; watered by him, 
that it may thrive and bear fruit. The thriving and 
fruit-be aring of a vine discovers it to be of God's plant- 
ing. 

But vou ask, are none recovered after sad and hoinous 



THE BACKSLIDER. 161 

backsliding? Yes, sir; but not without the grace 
afforded of a bitter sad repentance. When backsliders 
live and die in a course of sin, without repentance, they 
are lost undoubtedly. This case is determined in both 
the Testaments. Jesus says, Except ye repent, ye shall 
''till perish. And Ezekiel saith, When a righteous man 
turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth 
iniquities, and dieth in them, for his iniquity that he 
hath done, he shall die. Such final backsliding is the 
case of all the stony and the thorny ground hearers, and 
shews the heart was never truly brought to God. Men 
may seem to be religious, walk in righteous paths for a 
season, and be called righteous men-, to difference them 
from the openly profane, and yet be unconverted men. 
By a sober education they may walk a while decently, 
as Jehoash did, though not devoutly; be civilized, though 
not evangelized ; or they might hear the word from a 
Samuel's mouth, as Saul heard, and become another man, 
as Saul became, but not a new man. If backsliders had 
been real children, God would have scourged them well 
with scorpions, and broken all their bones, as David's 
were, and fetched them home with streaming eyes and 
bleeding heart. 

When repentance is afforded after heinous backsliding, 
a few examples are recorded in the Scripture, to encour- 
age such to call on God, and hope for mercy. And when 
Jesus breaks a heart for sin, his blood will heal it. But 
if backsliders fancy they must all be restored by repen- 
tance because David was restored, and Peter was, they 
might as well suppose they must all be translated into 
heaven without dying, because Enoch and Elijah were. 

L 



162 A GOSPEL FOUNDRY. 

To sin, presuming on repentance and a future call, is 
such a devilish motive, and carries such a cloven foot, as 
shews a case bad indeed. This was not Peter's case, nor 
David's. The most alarming thunder in the book of God 
is levelled at such horrible presumption. If any bless 
himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though 
I walk after the imaginations of my heart, to add 
drunkenness to thirst, (that is, sin to sin,) the Lord will 
not spare that man ; but the anger of the Lord and his 
jealousy shall smoke against that man ; and all the 
curses which are written in this book shall lie upon 
him. 

Indeed, doctor, I can see no reason to object against 
the doctrine of perseverance, when attended by the ser- 
geant's guard. While they walk hand in hand together, 
the doctrine is a spur to diligence, and the sergeant is a 
check to wantonness or laziness. But how comes it that 
the world takes such high offence at these doctrines, and 
loathes the preachers and professors of them ? Nay, we 
are told that some very honest folks, who are east in a 
gospel-foundry, often ring a fire-bell to quench these very 
doctrines. And you may think it makes us titter when 
we hear a cry of fire, and see some engines from the 
foundry playing on the tabernacle-pulpit. It is pretty 
sport for us, when the gospel-men pull noses, and the 
gospel-dames pull caps. Such frays make us laugh 
delightfully, and yield a venison feast for the squire and 
the vicar. " Now these rogues begin to quarrel, we shall 
hear of all their tricks," they cry. When the dean of 
Tottenham died, his chapels, we supposed, would tumble 
down of course ; but they keep upon their legs, we hear ; 



THE PARISH SCHOOLMASTER. 163 

and the pulpits are becrowded most amazingly. Our 
schoolmaster is reputed a very topping scholar. He can 
write Italian hand, read a Latin dictionary, manage vul- 
gar fractions, and give you twenty nimble reasons for 
every thing ; and he says, the doctrines of grace will 
never be abandoned by those who are tinctured with them. 
For every one who slips into them drops into a quagmire, 
and is swallowed up directly. He compares the doctrine 
to Polyphemus's den, where many went in, but none came 
out ; all were eaten up alive in the cave by the monster. 

Sir, I perceive your schoolmaster is an arch fellow ; 
and, like his neighbors, useth wanton tricks to put modest 
truth out of countenance. A fool's cap thrust upon the 
head of a serious truth, or a grave judge, will make them 
both appear ridiculous, when nothing else could. How- 
ever, truth will not be thrust out of doors, though often 
put to the blush. She may change her countenance, but 
cannot change her nature, nor will desert her post. Yet, 
if religious truth meets with lewd opposers, I must confess 
she sometimes meets with wanton advocates, who hang up- 
on her skirts, and claim acquaintance with her, and bring 
disgrace upon her, though she disclaims them utterly. 

Scandalous professors are found in every age, who warp 
the doctrine of grace to sanctify their wickedness. Like 
the spider or the toad, everything such lewd men feed up- 
on is turned into poison. Paul speaks of these, and says, 
Their helly is their God, and they glory in their shame. 
Peter calls them Spots in their love-feasts ; sporting 
themselves with their own deceiving s ; cursed children ; 
having eyes full of adultery, and hearts exercised with 
covetous practices. And Jude can scarcely keep his tern- 



164 ABUSE OF GOD'S DOCTRINES. 

per while he brands them as brute beasts ; filthy dreamers, 
walking after their own lusts : raging vjaves of the sea 
foaming out their own shame ; clouds without water, 
carried about with every ivind ; wandering stars, for 
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. 

Such professors will arise at all times, and give a just 
offence to serious minds ; and because these brute beasts 
are always babbling about faith and grace, this sets the 
world of course against the doctrines. They are con- 
demned as poisonous, because abused by hypocrites, and 
every preacher of the doctrines is supposed to be an open 
cr a secret advocate for vice. Even Satan seems a much 
more harmless creature than a Calvinist. If he has one 
cloven foot, a Calvinist, be sure, has two. 

But, sir, the abuse of doctrines is no argument to prove 
the doctrines themselves are hurtful. The blessings of 
providence are fully as much abused as the doctrines of 
grace, yet none reject the providential blessings, because of 
their abuse. If all my countrymen were drunkards and 
gluttons, this would be no argument for my rejecting food 
and drink, but a good caution to use them temperately. 
And if my brethren, who profess the doctrines of grace, 
should all agree to wear them as a cloak for wickedness, 
this would be no reason for my rejecting the doctrines, but 
a strong caution not to wear the cloak myself. The Apos- 
tles did not reject the doctrines of grace, because a wicked 
use was made of them ; no more should you or I. 

The common run of Christians do not regard the doc- 
trines of grace, yet thousands live in open sin, and cheer 
their hearts in sin, by saying God is merciful. The doc- 
trines of grace cannot be more abused than the mercy of 



165 



God is, nor afford a sweeter handle for licentiousness ; yet 
no horrid outcries are raised at this abuse. Many mind 
it not, and others pass it softly over with saying it is wrong. 
But sure God's honor is as much concerned in this abuse 
as in the other. And since men can bear to have the 
mercy of God abused, but take a violent offence when the 
doctrines of grace are perverted, this sheweth that the 
mere abuse of these doctrines is not the chief ground of 
the world's outcry. The doctrines themselves are hateful, 
because they batter human pride, undermine all human 
merit, lay the human worm' in the dust, and give the 
glory of salvation wholly unto God. Nature cannot bear 
this, she would not have salvation as a lost, but as a decent 
sinner ; nor become an heir of glory by a mere election of 
God and faith in Jesus, but by some noble plea of merit ; 
nor would she walk in duty's path through the Holy 
Spirit's aid, but by her own gouty ankles. With some 
reluctance she endureth to go halves with Jesus, but will 
never bear to be wholly saved by grace. It is so pitiful a 
way — so much beneath her dignity ! What ? If she is 
become a captive, and the devil's captive, she was once an 
empress, and will never wear a crown through another's 
generous purchase, but by her own exploits, and decent 
share of merit. 

It is not possible to preach the doctrines of grace, nor 
even to profess them, without the world's indignation and 
censure. If every preacher was a Timothy, and all pro- 
fessors were Nathanaels, still the world would hold them 
in abhorrence, think them Satan's troops, and call them 
wolves in sheep's clothing. Paul affirms that himself and 
his fellow-laborers were slandered as licentious men, who 



166 NAUSEOUS PREACHING. 

said, Let us do evil, that good may come. And Peter 
intimates that all the Christians were spoken against as 
evil-doers. Now, sir, if the preachers in the purest age 
of the church were slandered as licentious men, and pro- 
fessors were reviled as a race of evil-doers, it is no marvel 
that the slander rolls along through all succeeding ages. 

And what could give occasion to this slander ? JN T ot 
the evil conduct of the first preachers and professors, but 
their nauseated doctrines, which made old nature sick. 
Preachers said, and converts did profess, that men are 
justified by faith, without the deeds of the law ; chosen 
of God before the foundation of the world; called by 
grace ; kept by the power of God, through faith unto sal- 
vation ; and saved not according to their own works, but 
according to God's purpose and grace. 

Such preaching, though attended with much practical 
instruction, appeared so licentious, that a heathen stom- 
ach revolted at it. Loose as the Gentiles were, they 
could loathe a Christian for his supposed evil principles ; 
and did condemn them all, apostles and their flocks, as the 
filth of the world, and the ojfscouring of all things. 

And if this was the case in the purest age, what else 
can be expected in succeeding ages ? But you say, we 
sojourn in a baptized country. True ; the country swarm- 
eth with baptized rakes, baptized worldlings, and baptized 
infidels. A watery profession, without the Spirit's bap- 
tism, will never wash the heart from pride, and subdue it 
to the Gospel doctrines ; and legal righteousness will set 
the heart still more against them. No one can truly bear 
the doctrines till he cannot bear himself. 

Jesus Christ inviteth them that are weary of themselves, 



A STALE CALUMNY. 167 

and laden with their guilt and sinful nature. Only such 
receive him in Judaea, and only such receive him in Great 
Britain. These are prepared for his Gospel, know what 
poverty of spirit means, and feel that brokenness of heart, 
which God delighteth in, and where he only dwells. 

These are the Gospel subjects ; but alas ! how few. 
And where must we find them, in leather or prunello, in 
camblet or in sarsenet ? They are a little flock indeed, 
who have been taught to say with Job, and say with deep 
compunction, We abhor ourselves. Yet Job was called a 
perfect man, by one who knew what is in man ; but Job 
wanted breaking down, before he could truly say, Behold 
I am vile. And when the furnace had well melted him, 
disclosed his dross and filthy scum, and made him loath- 
some to himself, then the work was done. The furnace 
cooled presently, his sorrows fled away, and peace and 
plenty smiled on him. 

The doctrines of grace are utterly repugnant to the pride 
of our Arminian nature ; yet none forsake the doctrines 
who have gained a clear sight of them. They are abused 
by some, as every good thing is, but are abandoned by 
none. Arminians, who have received a ray of gospel- 
light, desert their ranks frequently ; bat a Calvinist will 
never leave his standard ; he dies at the foot of his colors. 
A clear sight of grace is so exceeding glorious, it keeps 
the heart steady to the doctrines. 

Perhaps you think a Calvinist maintains his ground, 
because it is bestrewed with roses, and suits licentious pur- 
poses. But, sir, this calumny is grown exceeding stale. 
It was broached first in Paul's day, and poured on him 
liberally, and sprinkled on his hearers ; and has begrimed 



168 AN EVIL GENERATION. 

his followers in all succeeding ages. If the slander sticks 
on us, it cleaves to Paul abundantly ; because he tapped 
this nauseous vessel which turns the human stomach, and 
makes it rave with indignation. 

These doctrines suit a contrite spirit ; and are drank, 
not as a Circe's bowl, to intoxicate the mind, but as a 
grace-cup to cheer the heart, and keep it steady under 
trials. They do not prove a monster's den, as you sup- 
pose, where all are eaten up who enter in ; but a banquet- 
house, where pilgrims find such sweet repast, they have 
do will to leave it. 

If I seem tedious on this article, the misguided zeal 
of some, I hope, well-minded people, has constrained me ; 
who have taken most outrageous pains to blacken Calvin- 
ism. Whatever ridicule a sparkling fancy could suggest, 
whatever filth or ordure could be raked together, has been 
cast upon it. The looseness of a few is charged on all the 
rest ; and a devil's coat is put upon a Calvinist, like some 
condemned heretic ; and in this flaming raiment he is held 
aloft, as a horrid bugbear, to frighten simple-hearted peo- 
ple. 

Well, but doctor, one thing somewhat gravels me, that 
these doctrines will not relish with the present age, though 
they are established. The law, the homilies, the articles, 
the prayer-book, all afford protection to them, and yet 
they cannot stand upon their legs. Pray, what makes 
them prove so rickety ? 

Sir, your question may be answered by another. Can 
any good thing keep its head above water in the present 
age ? If the doctrines of grace are rejected, is not the 
word of God despised too, and the house of God deserted, 






CHURCH AND STATE. 169 

and the name of God blasphemed everywhere? The 
Bible, like an old almanac, is either cast out of doors, or 
cast upon a solitary shelf, to be buried there in dust, and 
covered with a winding-sheet weaved by a spider. How 
should the doctrines keep upon their legs when the Bible, 
which contains them, is fallen upon the ground ? 

Unless a spirit of grace is poured out upon a land, the 
doctrines of grace cannot be heartily received, because 
they fight with every dictate of depraved nature. The 
first lesson to be learned in Christ's school is, deny thyself 
every thing that belongs to self not se/f-pleasing only, and 
seZ/'-interest, but all se/f-sufficiency, self-will, self-potence, 
and self-righteousness ; and these are heavy crosses to be 
taken up. 

JThe law was established with divine solemnity among 
the Israelites ; yet they were evermore deserting this 
establishment, and warping to idolatry. And how were 
they reclaimed ? By a prophet's mouth, you say. True ; 
but a prophet's mere preaching could no more reclaim the 
people, than a prophet's dancing. God gave a promise to 
his prophet, I will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem the Spirit of grace and supplication, and so the work 
was done. Where the Spirit of grace fell, a change was 
wrought. 

Even so it fares with the Gospel, which can no more 
be kept on foot, than the law was without a supernatural 
power. Men will desert the doctrines and the precepts 
of the Gospel, for these go hand in hand ; nor can human 
establishments prevent it. Establishments may keep up 
forms, but Christ alone can give the power. A fanciful 
alliance may be framed between church and state ; but 



170 ZEAL FOR MORALITY. 

the church's whole support is from the church's Head. 
Tlie government is laid upon his shoulders ; and he will 
never prosper doctrines which oppose his grace. Such 
preaching will be chaff and stubble, and the preachers 
grow contemptible. 

When a Christian church becomes exceedingly de- 
praved ; when its nobles are as ravening wolves ; and 
its prophets daub them with untempered mortar ; when 
its watchman are grown blind, love to slumber, and are 
looking every one for his gain ; and the people, great 
and small, given unto covetousness — then, unless the 
Lord revives his ivork by pouring out his Spirit from 
on high, the church's candlestick is quite removed, and 
she becomes a sister to the African and Asiatic churches. 

Mahometanism is the gulf provided by the Lord, for 
his abandoned churches to be drowned in. They first 
deny the God who made and bought them, which drives 
them to the synagogue of Arius ; another gentle step 
leads them to the chapel of Socinus ; and half a pace 
more brings them briskly to the mosque of Mahomet. 

Doctor, I am told by the vicar that his brethren drop 
the doctrine of justification by faith alone, because it 
seems unfriendly to morality. And he says the Whole 
Duty of Man was sent abroad, as a public bellman, to cry 
the doctrine down. The clergy now are straining all their 
nerves in support of common duties, and seem so fervent 
in this matter, that a jackdaw dares not perch upon the 
steeple while they are shouting in the pulpit for morality. 
They give the lash sometimes when the squire keeps from 
church, but do exclaim against all thieving and hedge- 
breaking most delightfully. Indeed, their lungs have 



HEATHEN MORALITY. 171 

"been so often strained by uncommon zeal for morality, 
that they are forced to wind up matters very speedily. 
Many cannot roar above ten minutes at a preaching for 
want of breath ; and others are constrained to keep a 
journeyman to shout for them. 

Sir, morality, like beauty, is a charming object, but, 
like beauty, often is made up with paint. Such seems 
morality at present ; a pretty plaything when dandled on 
a consecrated cushion, or chanted in a modern midnight 
conversation, but will not keep men from an alehouse. 
The people, who are chiefly loaded with morality are the 
booksellers ; and they have got a shopfull, but are rather 
sick of the commodity, and long to part with it. Though 
gilt and lettered on the back, it moulds upon a shelf, like 
any Bible ; and Mr. Hales' tract on salivation will post 
away through ten editions before a modest essay on 
morality can creep through one. 

The Whole Duty of Man was sent abroad with a good 
intent, but has failed of its purpose, as all such teaching 
ever will Morality has not thriven since its publication, 
and never can thrive, unless grounded wholly upon grace. 
The heathens for want of this foundation could do noth- 
ing. They spoke some noble truths, but spoke to men 
with withered limbs and loathing appetites. They were 
like way-posts, which shew a road, but cannot help a crip- 
ple forward ; and many of them preached much brisker 
morals than are often taught by their modern friends. In 
their way they were skilful fishermen, but fished without 
the gospel-bait, and could catch no fry. And after they 
had toiled long in vain, we take up their angle-rods and 
dream of more success, though not possessed of half their 
skill. 



172 NATURE MUST BE CHANGED. 

God has shown how little human wit and strength can 
do to compass reformation. Reason has explored the 
moral path, planted it with roses, and fenced it round 
with motives, but all in vain. Nature still recoils ; no 
motives drawn from Plato's works, nor yet from Jesus' 
gospel, will of themselves suffice : no cords will bind the 
heart to God and duty but the cord of grace. 

Man is conceived and born in sin ; what can he do ? 
Nature is sunk and fallen ; and nature's creed is this, 
Video meliora proboque, deteriora secpior — I see and I 
approve the better path, but take the worse. Nature may 
be overruled for a time by some violent restraints ; but 
nature must be changed, or nothing yet is done. The 
tree must first be made good before the fruit is good. A 
filthy current may be stopped ; but the brook is filthy 
still, though it cease to flow. The course of nature may 
be checked by some human dam, yet opposition makes 
the current rise, and it will either burst the dam, or break 
out other ways. Restrained sensuality often takes a 
miser's cap, or struts in pharisaic pride. Nothing but 
the salt of grace can heal the swampy ground of nature, as 
Elisha's salt, a type of grace, healed the naughty waters 
and the barren grounds of Jericho. 

The law is not given to make a sinner righteous. 
Through the weakness of his flesh, it has no power to 
justify or sanctify him. It shews the path of duty, but 
neither lends a crutch to lame travellers, nor gives a heav- 
enly title unto sinners. Paul knew the use of the law, 
and declares, It was added because of transgressions. 
It was added to the promise made to Abraham, which 
contained the covenant of grace ; and was added because 



THE LAW OUR SCHOOLMASTER. lid 

of transgressions, that men might know what heinous 
things they were. 

Again, The law entered, that the offence might 
abound. The offence (to naq&mM^a, the fall) of 
Adam, was a sin with penalty of death ; but no such 
penalty had been annexed to any sin beside murder' 
from Adam unto Moses. Men knew themselves to 
be offenders, but did not know that death was the penalty 
of each offence, till the law pronounced a curse on every 
one who continued not in all things. Then they saw that 
death was the wages of every sin. Thus when the law 
entered, the offence, with penalty of death, did abound; 
and the law entered, that such offence might abound, to 
certify sinners of their lost condition, and their utter need 
of a Saviour. Hence we read, The law worketh ivrath, 
not our justification, but our condemnation ; and by the 
law is the knowledge of sin. The law, by its penalty, 
discovers my condemned state ; and by its spirituality, 
discloses my corrupted heart. Therefore, Paul says. I, 
through the laiv, am dead to the law — - dead to all expec- 
tations of relief from it, either to justify my person, or to 
sanctify my nature. And his conclusion is this — Where- 
fore the law is our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, 
tJmt we might be justified by faith. The law sends us 
unto Jesus, not with recommendations in our hand, but 
with condemnations in our bosom ; and is meant to empty 
us of every fancied legal hope arising from our own obedi- 
ence, and force the heart to seek salvation wholly by grace, 
through faith. 

When the law has done this office, and sent a sinner, 
wounded, poor, and naked, to the good Samaritan, then it 



174 



becomes a rule of life in the Mediator's hand. And Jesus, 
having justified a sinner by his blood and righteousness, 
sanctifies him by his Word and Spirit. The work belongs 
to Christ alone, as Saviour ; and a believer's business is to 
live upon him wholly, calling on him fervently, trusting in 
him stedfastly, and, by a life of faith, to receive from his ful - 
ness a supply for every want. No real holiness of heart, 
nor true morality in life, can be had but through him, and 
by faith in him. He is the true vine, producing every 
branch, with all its leaves and grapes ; and is the green 
fir-tree, from whom our fruit is found. 

For a century past, the noble building of Grod's grace 
has been propped up with legal buttresses. Moses is 
called in hastily to underprop his master Jesus. Galatian 
anvils are bought up, and gospel-doctrines hammered thin, 
and beaten out upon them. Jesus. can behold no cast of 
grace in his own gospel ; and Paul, were he alive, would 
cry aloud, Who has bewitched you, foolish Britons? 

Now, sir, I ask, what good effects have been produced 
by this modern gospel ? A century is time sufficient to 
give us full experience of it. Do we find more praying 
families, more crowded churches, and more empty jails ? 
Are ropes pulled oftener in a chiming steeple, and stretched 
seldomer at Tyburn ? Can we travel roads with more 
safety, and sleep with fewer bolts upon our doors ? Are 
play-houses and gaming-houses become exceeding rare ; 
and their owners grown very meagre, quite abashed at their 
occupation ? Have we more preaching bishops and pains- 
taking clergy, more staunch patriots and upright lawyers, 
more gentle masters and faithful servants, and more fair 
dealing practised in buying and selling ? 



OP THE MODERN GOSPEL. 175 

Alas, sir, you know, and I know the contrary. Glut- 
tony and drunkenness, cursing and swearing, gaming and 
gambling, diversion and dissipation, are become so common, 
as to make the fashion : and nameless sins, the last scum 
of a filthy land, are bubbling in the pot apace, and boiling 
over. Wickedness wears no mask and fears no censure. 
Ever since the new gospel shewed its face, profaneness and 
infidelity have been pouring in, like a sweeping rain, and 
overflowed the land. God has lost his worship, Christ has 
lost his office, Scripture has lost its credit, and morality 
has lost its carcass. It has become a pageant, held up in 
a pulpit, but seldom noticed out of it ; and as for holiness, 
it is the land's abhorrence. The Christian title, saint, not 
applied in Scripture to apostles, but to all believing 
churches, is become a name exceedingly fulsome. A 
Christian nose will wind up like a bottle-screw at the 
mention of it ; and Esau cannot vent his spleen on Jacob 
more effectually than to cry, "you saint." 

Sir, these things are notorious , and a judicial conse- 
quence of departing from the Scripture doctrines. God 
will bear no witness to any doctrines but his own. All 
endeavors for a reformation will be blasted, when they 
build on human merit, will, and power, and are not 
grounded wholly on the grace of Christ. A legion of dis- 
courses have been published on morality, and a little host 
of volumes have appeared against infidelity ; yet immor- 
ality and infidelity are making rapid progress through the 
land. And how can this be well accounted for, if the 
modern gospel is the gospel of Christ Jesus ? 

Where the doctrines of grace are truly preached, a 
spirit of grace will be poured forth to make the word effec- 



176 FROM BAD TO WORSE. 

tual. For thus the Lord speaketh, As the rain cometh 
down from heaven, and water eih the earth, and maheth 
it bring forth and bud, so shall my word be ; it shall not 
return unto me void, but shall prosper. And again, If 
the prophets had caused my people to hear my words, 
(bad truly delivered my doctrine) then they should have 
turned the people from their evil way, and from the evil 
of their doings. And this was spoken also of such 
prophets as ran before they were sent, had no commission 
from the Lord. Yet of these the Lord says, If they had 
caused the people to hear my words they should have 
turned them from their evil ways. Though they were in- 
terlopers, or even hypocrites, yet, like Elijah's raven, they 
should have carried meat in their mouth to feed another, 
which they tasted not themselves. Judas, though himself a 
devil, casteth devils out of others, when he went in Christ's 
name, and preached Christ's word. 

Now, sir, the case standeth thus : — God has promised 
a reformation when his word is truly preached ; but no 
reformation is produced by the modern preaching. 
Things are visibly declining from bad to worse. There- 
fore we must conclude, either the word of a faithful God 
is fallen to the ground, or his word has not been preached 
faithfully. If God is not in blame, the preachers are 
and must be so. 

For a long season the good old church doctrines have 
been much forsaken ; by some they are derided, and by 
many are deserted. Yet no doctrines can build the 
Church of Christ up but those which planted it. We 
may labor much in lopping off loose branches of immo- 
rality and infidelity, yet nothing will be done effectually 



THE READING DESK AND PULPIT. 177 

till the axe is laid to the tree's root. The root is can- 
kered, and while it remains so, the lopping off a cankered 
branch will only cause more cankered shoots. 

The fall of Adam, and the total ruin of man's nature 
by that fall, together with his whole recovery by Christ, 
and through faith in him, are become exploded or neg- 
lected doctrines. Yet these doctrines are the ground-work 
of our religion, and prove the need of regeneration as 
well as outward reformation ; shew the want of a new 
nature as well as new conduct. Scripture represents 
mankind as dead in sin, and dead to God ; and dead 
souls can have no power to help themselves. We are 
without strength, and therefore God has laid help on one 
that is mighty, able to save unto the uttermost. 

Men are rightly treated in a reading-desk, and called 
by their proper name of miserable sinners ; but in a pul- 
pit they are complimented on the dignity of their earthly, 
sensual, devilish nature ; are nattered with a princely will 
and power to save themselves ; and ornamented with a 
lusty badge of merit. Justification by faith, the jewel of 
the gospel-covenant, the ground-work of the reformation, 
the glory of the British church, is now derided as a poor 
old beggarly element, which may suit a negro or a con- 
vict, but will not serve a lofty scribe, nor a licentious 
gentleman. And the covenant of grace, though execu- 
ted legally by Jesus, purchased by his life and death, 
wrote and sealed with his blood, is deemed of no value 
till ratified by Moses. Paul declares, No other founda- 
tion can one lay, beside that which is laid, Christ Jesus. 
But men are growing wise above what is written, and 
will have two foundations for their hope — their own fan- 
in 



178 NICODEMUS IN THE PRESENT AGE. 

cied merit added to the meritorious life and death of 
Christ. 

If an angel should visit earth, and vend such kind of 
gospel as is often hawked from the press and pulpit, 
though he preached morality with most seraphic fervency, 
and till his wings dropped off, he would never turn one 
soul to God, nor produce a single grain of true morality, 
arising from the love of God, and aiming only at his 
glory. 

When Nicodemus waits on Jesus, he receives instruc- 
tion, such as every hearer should receive from his teacher. 
The sermon is recorded as a model for the ministers of 
Christ to copy after. Nicodemus appears to he a very 
upright man, though somewhat timid ; he was a teacher 
too in Israel, did&uxcdog ; and of course explained the 
two tables, and preached what we call morality. He also 
was a lowly man, and therefore wanted more instruction, 
and he came to Jesus with a high opinion of his charac- 
ter, believing him to be a prophet, a teacher come from 
God. 

Had Nicodemus lived in the present age, he would 
have been esteemed a topping gospel minister, and might 
have made a notable archdeacon. For, though a stranger 
to the new birth, and to faith in Christ's atonement, he 
was a teacher of morality, a moral man himself, and had 
full faith in Jesus as a prophet. Well, he comes to 
Christ, and expects, no doubt, a famous lecture on moral- 
ity, and perhaps some handsome compliment for himself ; 
but, lo ! he is told, Except he is born again, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God — his kingdom of grace 
and glory. A moral conduct shall avail him nothing, 



EZEKIEL, MOSES, AND JEREMIAH. 179 

without a new birth, a new nature from above. The 
Jewish ruler was a stranger to this doctrine as some mod- 
ern teachers are, and asks a mighty staring question about 
it ; and seemed much bewildered, even after Jesus had 
explained the doctrine. 

Yet Nicodemus, as a teacher in Israel, must have read 
his Bible, and of course understood the necessity of re- 
formation, or a new moral conduct. And who can be a 
stranger to this matter, Heathen, Jew, or Christian, 
whose conscience is not wholly seared ? But if Jesus 
meant a reformation of life by regeneration, his behavior 
to the ruler was very disingenuous, and cannot well be 
justified. For on this supposition, Jesus only proposed a 
matter to Nicodemus, which he knew perfectly well ; but 
proposed it craftily under a new name, or a metaphorical 
expression, which he knew not, and then takes occasion 
to upbraid the ruler with his ignorance, Art thou a mas- 
ter in Israel, and knowest not these things ? Jesus 
therefore must either meant something more than mere 
reformation of life, or his conduct towards Nicodemus will 
appear crafty and captious. 

If by regeneration Jesus did not intend a moral reform- 
ation of life, but a spiritual renovation of nature, a real 
but secret work of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men, 
producing a new and spiritual service, and divine com- 
munion in that service, then his reproof of the ruler was 
just, because he might have learned the doctrine of regen- 
eration from Ezekiel, where God says, I will take away 
the heart of stone and give you a new heart and a new 
spirit; and I will put my Spirit within you. Herein 
consists God's work of regeneration ; and the true reform- 



180 THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER COMPLETE. 

ation results from it, yet by the Lord's hand, for so it 
follows, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and, 
' keep my judgments, and do them. 

So, when Moses gives his dying charge to Israel, he 
tells them, The Lord thy God will circumcise thy head, 
and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart and with all thy soul. 

Jeremiah also preaches the same doctrine, Twill give 
them one heart and one luay ; and Tivill put my fear in 
their hearts that they shall not depart from me. 

When Jesus had declared to Nicodemus the necessity 
of regeneration, he then speaks of the atonement, and of 
justification hy faith ; as Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up ; 
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have eternal life. And so the conference ends. 

The Spirit's birth brings a meetness for heaven. It 
teaches men to offer spiritual sacrifices ; but it gives no 
right to pardon, nor any claim to eternal life. These 
blessings are wholly treasured up in Christ, and are ob- 
tained only through faith in him ; even as you heard just 
now, Whoso believeth on him hath eternal life. There- 
fore Jesus conducts the ruler through regeneration to the 
atonement and justification by faith, and there ends — 
ends with what truly finishes the Christian character, a 
vjhole dependence upon Jesus Christ, even after spiritual 
life is received, and manifested by a holy walk. 

When the doctrines of regeneration and justification by 
faith become despised or deserted doctrines, the labors of 
the clergy will prove useless, their persons will grow cheap, 
•their office seem contemptible, and they at length may be 
ashamed of their function and their livery. 



FAITH IN CHRIST. 181 

The present age would fain be called a learned age, 
and the giddy people think themselves a wise people — 
wise to do evil, but to do good have no knowledge. Rea- 
son flirts at revelation, merit spurns the thought of grace, 
tapers would outblaze the sun, and human fancies far out- 
weigh the truth of Grod. But, sir, I must be moving. 

A word or two more, doctor, and then we take a 
friendly leave. Your visit to the grazier will certainly 
get wind. Every creature will be staring as you walk 
through the parish. Your look and gait are very primi- 
tive ; and your beaver would fill a bushel. A dozen 
skimming-dish hats, such as the gentry wear, might be 
scooped from it. To-morrow I expect the vicar at my 
house, to dine upon a good fat capon 3 and he will surely 
make inquiries after you. Can you put a brief account 
of faith into my mouth, which may lie at my tongue's end, 
ready for him when he comes ? He will hear what is said 
patiently ; and if he does not approve, he will not revile. 
He rails at nobody, and has never had a single squabble 
with the parish since he came, about his tithe eggs, pigs, 
or turnips. 

Faith in Christ, sir, implies not only a hearty belief of 
the Saviour's doctrines, but a whole dependence on the 
Saviour's person, as our prophet, priest, and king. It 
requires a careful use of the means of grace, but forbids 
all trusting in the means. I must read the word of Grod 
with care, yet not rely upon my own ability to make me 
wise unto salvation, but wholly trust in Jesus, as my pro- 
phet to open my dark understanding, and direct me by 
his Spirit into all saving truth. I must watch against sin, 
and pray against it too; yet not rely upon my own 



182 THE LIFE OF FAITH. 

strength to conquer it, but wholly trust in Jesus as my 
king, to subdue my will, my tempers, and affections, by 
his Spirit ; to write his holy law upon my heart, and influ- 
ence my conduct to his glory. I must be zealous of good 
works — as zealous to perform them, as if my pardon and 
a crown of glory could be purchased by them ; yet wholly 
trust in Jesus, as my priest, to wash my guilty conscience 
in his purple fountain, and clothe my naked soul in his 
glorious righteousness, thereby receiving all my pardon 
and my title to eternal life. 

The life of faith is thus expressed by Paul, Bun with 
patience the race set before you, looking unto Jesus — 
looking unto him with a single eye continually ; and look- 
ing so by prayer and faith, as to receive supplies for 
every want. 

Faith is the master key to the treasury of Jesus ; it 
opens all the doors, and brings out every store. A heart, 
well nurtured in this precious grace, finds the gospel rest. 
In time of danger, sickness, or temptation it flutters not, 
nor struggles hard to help itself, but standeth still and 
sees the Lord's salvation. The eye is singly fixed on 
Jesus, the heart is calmly waiting for him, and Jesus 
brings relief. Faith calls, and Jesus answers, " Here 
I am to save thee." 

Indeed, doctor, I am quite charmed with this account 
of faith ; it is just what our church homilies tell us. It 
secures the interests of holiness, obedienee, and good 
works, and gives the whole glory unto God. Why, this 
is right ; man is saved, and God glorified ; man is brought 
to heaven through grace, and sings eternal hallelujahs for 
it. I wish we heard a little more about this gospel-faith, 



DRAMS TOO VIOLENT FOR CHRISTIANS. 183-207 

and indeed a little more about Bible-sin and holiness ; but 
these names, I think, are growing out of date. Doctor, I 
have no wine to offer ; but you shall take a glass of my 
Holland gin, before you go; it is right special. The 
weather is hazy, and may require it ; and my heart is 
quite fre'e to give it. 

* Sir, I thank you, but I drink no drams. They are too 
violent and forcing for a Christian, whose understanding 
should be free and calm. Indeed, no sort of cordial now 
is wanted : I am enough refreshed if you are satisfied- 
Farewell, doctor. 
Farewell, sir ; grace and peace be with you. 



THE END 




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